


Everything is as it seems

by Fipsi19



Series: What if? [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst and Humor, Character Death Fix, Friendship, Graphic violence in later chapters, M/M, Past Child Abuse, orphan!Loki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-14
Updated: 2014-11-07
Packaged: 2018-02-13 03:40:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 32,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2135703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fipsi19/pseuds/Fipsi19
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU of Loki´s life if he didn´t grow up on Asguard but on Earth, BTW it´s a fix it!!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Don´t not read it because it is tagged as Character death for it is a fix it and everything will be explained eventually. I had the idea and thought why not and right now I have 30 pages written and no end in sight so it will be a couple of chapters I think...updates: I try to do them regularly but sometimes stuff can happen and they will be late so sorry in advance...hopefully I finish writing it before sept. and will finish publishing it by end of sept!!  
> As always no rights belong to me!

The night was eerily silent. No noise was heard. It was like the world held its breath, like the world stood still, waiting for something to happen.

A shot disturbed the silence. With it noises came crashing down. Voices were heard, screaming a name. Sobs. Crying.

Nat, I am sorry

 

„Clint, wake up, please wake up! You got to wake up!“ Somebody was shaking him. Calling his name, over and over again. „Please, Clint, don´t do this to me!“ the voice begged. Somebody held his body close. Something wet dropped on his face. Was someone crying? The voice, it was male, begged him to wake up between his sobs. Slowly Clint opened his eyes. Everything was spinning. He tried to focus. He was clearly pressed against another body. And the person holding him was shaking with sobs. It was a young body, still growing. The other person finally let go of him, looking shocked at him. 

„Oh my god, Clint, I thought you died. Don´t do this again to me, ever!“ The voice was relieved. He looked at face, trying to recognise it. He didn´t. „I thought he killed you this time!“ The young male, not over sixteen he guessed, said to him, tears still rolling down his face. The boy looked pale, probably because of the shock, and had dark near black long hair with ice blue eyes. He kind of reminded Clint of somebody but he couldn´t pinpoint who it was. The boy said something to him. 

„...Clint? Clint? Are you with me? Do you need help? Should I go and get Madame Zaboni?“ 

„No, I uhm I am okay, just my head...everything is spinning“ Clint finally replied in a raspy voice. 

The boy looked at him in understanding. „No wonder, Trickshot hit you pretty hard! I thought for sure...I am so sorry I wasn´t here in time!“ He broke down again, holding Clint close to him, sobbing. Clint didn´t know how to react. Shell shocked he murmured comforting words to the other boy. So he was at the circus. That still didn´t tell him who the boy was. Clint tried to remember what had happened, but everything was hazy and foggy like he was caught in a blue mist. He could remember some faceless bodies and feelings but nothing for certain.

The unknown boy tried to help him up. Pain shot through his body, making him gasp, nearly falling down again. Quickly the boy grabbed his upper body and held him up, pressed against his own and led him out of the tent they were in, to a caravan. He opened its door and helped him lay down on one of the two beds, siting himself down on the one opposite of it. 

 

Clint looked around. The walls of the caravan on the side of his bed were filled with posters of himself and his act, he supposed. „The Amazing Hawkeye!“ was written on them. He was on them in a tight fitting purple costume. On the opposite side the walls were filled with posters too, but on them there was the boy in a green costume with a long spear and a helmet with two long horns. „ The Northern God of Mischief Loki“. 

„Loki..“ Clint murmured. The boy, Loki it seemed looked at him in concern. 

„Do you need something?“ 

Clint tried to recognise the name and he could swear he heard it before. It was so familiar but he couldn´t say why.

„I will go and get Madame Zaboni!“ Loki stood up and walked to the door. „No, it is okay, don´t go bother her. I am fine, I promise! I got worse after all!“ Loki stood at the door, not convinced by it but closed the door again. „I don´t know, Clint, you were out pretty long, maybe I really should get some help“ He tried to convince Clint. „No, it´s fine, nothing a good nights sleep doesn´t cure. Where is Barney?“

Maybe Barney could fill in the gaps. „Clint, Barney left two months ago, don´t you remember?“

Clint wanted to shake his head for a moment before he realised that he didn´t want to worry Loki any more. „Yeah, right!“ he said. Loki sat down opposite of him again. „Are you hungry?“ he asked before suddenly an apple appeared in the palm of his hand, offering it to Clint. Clint jumped in shock. „What..How did you do that?“ he asked the boy, not believing his eyes, staring at the apple warily.

„The same way I always do“ Loki answered uncertain about the situation. He took a look at him before taking the offered apple. „Yeah, of course. Thank you!“ He bit into it. It tasted like a normal apple, a bit sweet maybe but nothing differen to any other. After finishing it he told Loki that he would take a nap. Closing his eyes he went through the things he knew for certain. 

1\. His name was Clint Barton.  
2\. He was an orphan.  
3\. His parents died when he was five.  
4\. His brother, Barney, left him.  
5\. He was at a circus.  
6\. He was an archer.

 

The next morning he woke up with his left side hurting as did his head. Loki was still sleeping. Slowly he got up. Clint dreamed about a red haired woman and a man in a suit, both faceless. He had a feeling that he should know them. Outside the caravan everything was silent. The sun only rose it seemed. He sat down on the stairs to his caravan. Over night he remembered a little more. 

 

It seemed that Trickshot was mad at him yesterday for nearly missing a mark and had beaten him for it. After the beating was over he left him laying on the ground until Loki came. 

 

Loki was his friend since he joined the circus nearly five years ago. His act was as an illusionist but he was real. A mutant, maybe. Loki´s parents left him at the circus, not even bothering to bring him to an orphanage. He grew up there until he was old enough to work for them. Loki was the name Madam Zaboni gave him after the northern God. She said fondly he always caused mischief and therefore the name was appropriate. They were friends since Barney tried to beat up the boy and Clint went between them. After both got roughed up by Barney, they were inseparable. 

That was five years ago. His illusions often saved them both from feeling hungry. It didn´t last though, only for an hour or so before the illusion wore off. As he grew older his illusions could last longer and they got bigger. 

 

The door to their caravan opened and a slightly panicked Loki appeared. „There you are!“ „Of course I am here, where should I go?“ Loki sat down beside him. „I thought maybe you left, like Barney did“ he whispered. „I wouldn´t leave you behind!“ Clint replied smiling at him. Loki looked at him, his eyes questioning his words. „Let´s get something to eat“ He said to the dark haired boy waiting for him to get up as well.

 

Both made their way to the kitchen of the circus. Nobody was up but them. They stole some bread and a bottle of orange juice. Hiding behind one of the cages for the animals they shared their food in silence. 

„We should leave“ Loki broke the silence. 

„And what would we do?“ Clint wanted to know.

„We could go to a city. New York maybe. Find a job. Anything is better than here“ Loki suggested.

„Social service would find us and sent us to an orphanage, separating us. We would never see each other again!“ Clint argued. 

„He nearly killed you yesterday!“ Loki hissed at him. „We can´t stay here any longer. We will find a way to survive. Work. And if things would be really bad, I could use the illusions!“ 

Clint stared at him, eyes wide. „I don´t know, I mean what if somebody notices something?“

„ At least we would be free from them!“ he reasoned.

Clint thought about it for a moment. He knew Loki was right. With a sigh he nodded. Loki smiled at him, a true smile. His eyes shone from happiness.  
That night, both took their stuff and ran, never daring to look back.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters a day! And it is an AU so please note it will be lightly ooc but I try my best to keep it as close to the original as possible...and for all hard core fans, no I didn´t read the comics only saw the movies, sorry mea culpa!

At twenty-one both found themselves in New York. It was the night of their first meeting with the Black Widow. They were both mercenaries. If somebody didn´t pay or did something to piss somebody off, they would take care of the situation. 

Clint was the one who brought Loki into the whole mess. Loki got sick shortly after leaving the circus. Surviving on the streets wasn´t how they imagined it would be. It was cold and wet most of the time. It didn´t matter which season, at night it was always cold. One day Loki got a cold. After a couple of days it didn´t get better only worse. When he collapsed in Clint´s arms, Clint brought him to the hospital begging for help. Pneumonia the doctors said. Loki stayed in the hospital for more than a week. They wanted money and Clint didn´t know how to pay. 

They threatened him with social service. 

On the streets, they sometimes heard rumors about men looking for someone to do a job for them. They offered money, a lot of it. Enough to pay the hospital bill. Clint still had his bow, so he took one job. He shot a man who stole from his drug dealer. He got enough money for the hospital. 

At first he didn´t tell Loki how he got the money but after a man came up to him, offering him another job he told him. Loki was shocked. Furious even. He told him that they were better than killers. Clint yelled at him that they needed the money. What should he have done instead? Let them go in the system? Never seeing each other again? Loki understood that but was still against it. He made Clint promise not to do it again.

Their situation only got worse and after weeks of no food at all, they broke down. „One job“ Loki said „only for something to eat and somebody who deserves it. Someone like a childmolester or rapist, alright?“ They found a man who had a job for them. A man who had some girls hooking for him. One of the other pimps had a problem with him. It was a known fact that the man had beaten several of his girls and even had one or two underaged under them. Loki gave his okay and both made their way to the location. Clint shot and scored. They got their pay, not as much as the last time but enough. They survived for a while until winter came. 

They did it again. This time Loki did it though. He didn´t want Clint to feel guilty for killing again. 

Loki created an illusion of something calm and harmless before he killed the man from behind, slicing his throat open. It was much more brutal and bloody than killing from the distance. Every job they took after that one caused no discussion. Both realised that that was their life now. Clint took the lives from the distance. His victims never even heard or saw him coming. Loki on the other side created illusions which made his victims feel safe and home or if Loki thought the target deserved, it let them act out the same horror they did to their victims before he killed them quickly with his knife.  
They never enjoyed killing their victims. But it was their job.

At eighteen they were infamous for being the best at what they were doing. They stopped taking every job offered to them. Instead they chose their own jobs. Sometimes they killed without getting paid. Those exceptions were rapists and childmolesters. The scum of the streets.

In New York they were hired to kill some politician who pissed of the wrong man. Mafia, Loki mused. Both didn´t care. The job had a good pay, better than most. The man who hired him didn´t care who killed him. The only condition was that it had to be unsuspicious. Loki argued that he would be the better person to do it, for he could create a diversion and would kill the man making it look like it was an accident. 

He made his way to the hotel were a fundraiser was hosted with the victim present. Clint took his place at top of one of the roofs where he had a good sight inside the ballroom, making sure nobody was setting them up. He watched as Loki created himself another illusion, creating himself an expansive suit and an armcandy. He winked at Clint´s direction and walked inside the building. Inside the ballroom he danced a few times with his creation to single out his target. The man in question was accompanied by a red haired beauty in a black dress.

Clint had a deja vú. It was like he knew the woman. Like she was a good friend of his. He watched as the woman glared at Loki like she knew what he was up to. Clint was alarmed. Warning Loki was impossible. They never had any comunicating advices on them. They feared someone could hack them, manipulate them. 

Clint took his bow, targeting the woman. He was sure Loki was aware of her for he had her in his view of vision all the time. Then chaos broke out. The woman moved a little to the left away from their target as their target suddenly crumpled and fell to the floor. Dead. People screamed and ran out of the ballroom. Clint lost sight of Loki or the woman. He packed up his stuff, leaving the rooftop in direction of their meeting point. Loki was already there. He sat in one of the booths of the small diner, dressed in a jeans and a green shirt drinking some tea, grimacing slightly at the taste.

Clint sat down opposite of him ordering himself some coffee and a piece of pie. „What happened in there?“ he asked between two sips of coffee.

„The tea is horrible!“ Clint gave him a look. „Yeah, I know what did I expect. I have no idea what happened. The woman. She did it. She was fast. Did you see her leaving?“

Clint shook his head.

„Doesn´t matter, although the money could have been useful. Although tomorrow will be another day somebody needs someone to see dead! God bless America!“ Loki joked. 

„She looked like the woman in my dreams!“ Clint confessed. Silence. 

„Are you sure?“ 

„Pretty sure, was the same red hair.“ Loki stared at him intently.

Clint told him about the dreams a few days after they had run away. He told him about the red haired woman and the man in the suit. At first Loki was afraid someone was messing with his head and talked about mind readers but after explaining that he felt safe and like knowing them he just listened. They got to the conclusion that whatever it was, someday it would get some meaning. Clint still dreamt about them from time to time. Meeting the woman of his dreams may meant something big was coming to get them.  
Soon.

Loki shot him a look, indicating that someone was watching them. Clint looked around unsuspiciously, and found the person staring at them. It was a woman in a dark blue suit. She didn´t watch them openly, but shot them glances from time to time. Goverment, he decided. He gave Loki a small nod, indicating him that he saw their shadow and let him work his magic, quite literally. 

It never stopped to amaze Clint how easily Loki could create and destroy illusions which only he seemed somewhat immune to. Small ones like objects didn´t show any signs of being not real to him but bigger ones like cars, a whole new room or a new person were clearly flawed, at least to Clint. He could say at one glance if it was reality or just an illusion. Loki laughed about it when he mentioned it once. He told Clint that he was thankful for it. So he was not the only one who knew it was not reality. Nobody else could see any difference between reality and illusion.

„You are a mutant, too, my brother“ Loki once told him jokingly but his eyes had shone with love and happiness at that time. They may were not brothers by blood but they were family. Loki was more of a brother to him than Barney ever was. To Loki he was the only family he ever had. 

Walking outside the diner, they watched as the woman spied on their fake selves, distancing themselves from the scene. Back at their hide out, an old empty appartment with a view over the river, both decided to leave the city as soon as possible. They seemed to have become careless that some goverment agency could follow them.

Years later, four to be exact, they found themselves in New York once again. Up until then they never took a job which would led them to the city that never sleeps. They left the US for a while taking on jobs in Europe. 

Loki hated parting from Great Britain for he finally found good tea and walked among the streets his beloved Shakespeare walked centuries before. They stayed in London for over a year. A long time to stay at one place as both thought. 

Loki even had a relationship with a nice college student named Emily. She studied English literature and he was quite taken with her. After six months he wanted to tell her about his gift. Clint warned him about it. He didn´t listen. 

One evening over diner at some pub, Loki brought up the the matter of mutants. Emily´s reaction was nothing he expected for she was strongly against them. She called them freaks of nature and wanted them locked away somewhere for the safety of everyone else. Loki was devasted. Clint was in rage and wanted nothing more than hurt her the same way she did Loki. 

The following day they left London and Great Britain for good. They ended up everywhere in Europe. Their last stop before heading back to the US was Vienna. Both of them had no idea why, because Vienna wasn´t really known for its active crime life but even there they found some jobs. Both liked it well enough for the people were nice and the coffee good. The tea was better than in the US. In Vienna they noticed that someone was following them again. They never caught a glimpse of their shadow but left Austria nonetheless. Clint argued that there were no real jobs anyways. 

They decided that four years away from the US were enough for any agency to stop looking for them. From Vienna they took a flight to New York. They hoped that whoever was following them would stay in Europe, letting them go.

New York was still the same but also changed a lot. Time stopps for nobody and it sure as hell didn´t stop for them. At twenty-five they had to find their place in life again. At first nobody believed them when they offered their service. A rumor, someone told them, only a rumor that two mercenaries like them ever existed. A fairytale you tell to scare each other. Just a memory of a time long gone by.

Loki and Clint thought about stopping with the jobs for good, maybe trying out the apple pie life but both realised that they had no other qualifications than to kill people. Clint suggested a new life in the hands of Uncle Sam but Loki wasn´t really fond of the desert. That he was afraid what they would do with him he didn´t say out loud. Clint understood nonetheless. A couple days passed and someone came up to them for a job. They took it willingly.

Six months and a couple dozens jobs later, Clint was shot in his leg by an unassuming man in a suit. He lay on the top of a roof, waiting for his target to show up and didn´t realise somebody was coming up to him until it was too late. He turned arount to see a man in a suit standing in front of him, asking him to get up. Slowly he got up, hoping that his quick reflexes would save him. He tackled the man and made a run for it. Before he even reached the fire escape leading down from the roof, he was shot in his leg. Stumbling from the sudden impact, he fell to the floor looking up to the man who shot him. 

Clint felt Loki coming for him but he would be to late. The man in the suit looked familiar. He was not much older than Clint, maybe eight years and had brown hair. If you would have met him on the streets you would have thought he was an accountant, nothing fancy. But here on the rooftop he had the aura of danger around him, like a predator. His eyes were focused on Clint, or so Clint thought at first until he noticed the man listening for every noise. 

Clint huffed a laugh. „You will never get him“ he told the suit. He didn´t get an answer. 

Clint tried his best to warn Loki. They found a way to comunicate without using any technology. Loki was able, after practising for months, years maybe, to link into Clint´s mind and talk to him and Clint to Loki. Clint trusted Loki completly. He knew Loki would never use that to his advantage or make Clint do something he didn´t want.

Loki was coming closer but it would take time to get to him. 

„Run! They are after you“ Clint told him telepathically. 

„I won´t leave you behind!“ was shot back at Clint. „Are you hurt?“

Clint winced. He wasn´t hurt badly. The bullet missed any artery but it bled nonetheless. The agent looked at him, clearly noticing him wince. He pulled of his tie and kneed down to bind his leg, stopping the bleeding. Clint looked incredously at him. Then it hit him like a hammer. It was the man from his dreams! The suit watched him warily. „You talk to him!“ he stated, seemingly not surprised by it. Clint nodded, too shocked by the revelation. 

„Clint, talk to me!“ Loki screamed in his mind.

„It is him, the man who shot me is the man in the suit! From my dreams!“ Clint replied. Confusion from Loki was felt by Clint. 

„What is the meaning of it?“

„I have no idea.“

„I am here.“ Clint took a look at the man. „Don´t use any of your illusions!“ he warned Loki. He heard as somebody came up the stairs. 

Loki stood still on the rooftop. A safe distance between him and the suit but also to Clint. Concerned he looked at Clint, his eyes widening a bit at the sight of the tie around his leg. 

„My name is Phil Coulson and I am an agent of SHIELD. I am here to make both of you an offer, join SHIELD or live the rest of your life in a high security prison.“ 

Clint looked at Loki. „It is your call!“ Loki told him without making one sound. The suit watched them warily. „Do you have medical?“ he asked the suit pointing to his leg. He heard his brother chuckle, relaxing slightly. The suit, Coulson, gave him a look. „Yes, we do“ he replied without showing any expression, though his eyes showed some amusement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And yeah, sometimes I reference to Supernatural or any other fandom I am in...


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your comments and your kudos! I am glad that somebody likes reading my story!!

The transport to the head quarter was tense. Nobody spoke a word. Everybody stared at them ready to defend themselves if necessary, except for Coulson. The man sat opposite to them and filled out some paper work. Loki was anxious. It was noticeable to Clint and maybe Coulson. Clint knew he worried about being treated like a lab rat and he felt slightly bad that he made him feel this way. He just had that feeling that Coulson wouldn´t do anything bad to them. He felt safe. Like home. 

Loki was restless, clearly uncomfortable with the situation. „Do you have something to eat on you?“ he asked Loki. Loki´s face lit up a little like always when he was reminded of their childhood. Their innocent years. With a small movement he created an apple, holding it out to Clint, not caring that the other five persons in the car saw him doing it. Coulson didn´t seem to be faced by it. The others got even more restless now. Maybe they wondered what else Loki could do, Clint mused while eating the apple, slightly sweeter than a normal one would be.

 

At the head quarter they were sent to medical for examination. Loki helped Clint hobble down the hallway behind Coulson. He led both into one room, telling them to wait for their doctor. A man in a white scrub walked in not looking at them. He introduced himself and looked at Clint´s wound before taking a blood sample from him. He then went on to do the same with Loki who took a step back away from the man.

The one time someone sucessfully took blood from him, he had been unconscious and Clint promised him that the sample was destroyed afterwards leaving no evidence of him being ever there. He didn´t trust doctors. He heard many stories about them and their experiments on other mutants. Loki was about to create an illusion for the good doctor as Clint touched his arm. He looked into Clint´s blue eyes and stopped.

„Sorry doc, you won´t get a sample from him!“ Clint said in a treathening tone. The doctor looked at him. „I don´t think a no is possible. Every new agent is required to give a blood sample! It is an order from the director!“ Clint gave a small nod. The doctor clearly believed he saw reason whereas Loki smirked and created the illusion of giving the man blood. The doctor smiled politely at both of them before leaving the room. 

Clint sighed and laid down on the hospital bed. „Do you think we made the right choice?“ Loki asked him. 

„We have nothing to loose! If it doesn´t work out and leave, like we always do.“ Clint said his eyes closed.

Loki nodded, reasured. 

„I owe it to you!“ he whispered in a small voice. 

Loki understood. It was Clin´t try to make up for bringing him into the life of a mercenary. An excuse for all the stuff they had to do to survive and his way to make sure they would at least try to live a life away from any criminal influence. Loki walked to the chair beside the bed and sat down. 

„And I owe it to you!“ he whispered back. He owed it to Clint to at least try to make it work. Loki wasn´t the only one who had to leave his innocence behind.

 

Minutes passed and Coulson and a black man with an eyepatch and a long black leather coat entered the room. „My name is Nick Fury and I am the director of SHIELD. Both of you were on our recruitment list for a while. You will undergo the training and maybe be assets for my agency. If you make one mistake, you are out!“ The one eyed man ordered. „Agent Coulson will show you to your living quarters and will be your handler!“ He walked out again, his coat fluttering behind him. 

„If you would follow me!“ Coulson stated. „You training will start tomorrow at six hundred sharp,...“ he talked about the regulations and rules but Loki wasn´t listening. He observed the man and could see why Clint found him interesting. At the first glance he looked unnoticable, just another paperpusher but if you looked closer you could see he was pure danger. His whole demeanor screamed no nonsense. Loki wondered what Clint had in mind with the man and why he would appear in his dreams. He noticed that they stopped in front of a room. 

Coulson indicated for Loki to walk in. Confused he looked at Clint. 

„We will share a room!“ he stated.

„No, you won´t. You and Barton will share the same floor but not the same room. Barton´s room will be down the hall.“ Coulson stated.

Creating a scene would mean not trying to fit in and he promised he would at least try. He gave both men a nod and walked into the room. It was a small room, no more than 20 square meters and a small bathroom with a shower attached to it. A bed, a table and a wardrobe were already in it. The wardrobe was filled with some black combat uniforms. With his mind he changed a few things, making his living quarter more homey like creating some books. For the video surveillance, he was sure that there was some, he manipulated it to play the same scene over and over again. Him laying on the bed, sleeping. He took one of the books and laid down reading. 

 

Clint walked after Coulson, a little surprised at the missing resistance from Loki. He knew Loki was trying to fit in and tried his best, but he was right. They were used to share their living quarter. He also knew for sure that Loki didn´t listen to one word the suit said to them. They stopped again in front of his own quarters. 

Unsurprisingly they weren´t amazing but they had survived worse. He was for sure that he was under surveillance but didn´t really mind. Living their kind of life made people surprisingly resourceful. He missed some of his stuff though. They left everything behind, not wanting to show them their hiding place. Maybe they would be able to get it the next day. 

 

The next morning he made his way to Loki´s room knowing that the other one would have no idea what to expect of the day. He knocked, giving the other one a warning to drop whatever illusion was going on in the room to deter the surveillance. Loki never liked being watched by any cameras. It made him feel like an animal in a cage. A few short moments later, Loki walked out of his room, similar dressed to Clint. 

„Oh, partner look“ Clint exclaimed cheerily.

Loki growled at him. He never was a morning person. „Don´t be grouchy! Let´s get some breakfast, chances are that they have tea, maybe it´s good one!“ Loki´s mood lighten a little at the mentioning of tea. 

At the cafeteria people were staring at them. They got themselves something to eat and some tea for Loki and sat down at an empty table with an good view of the whole room. Loki drank his tea, which wasn´t as bad as he feared. Clint ate like he didn´t had something to eat for days, a habit he still had from their youth. Loki himself didn´t feel that hungry but watched the other people in the room. They were wary about them, not knowing how to deal with two newbies who clearly weren´t from a military backround.

He wondered if there were any rumors about them already circulating. Probably. Maybe he should give them a show. A wicked grin appeared on his lips. 

„Do you think they appreciate a good show?“ 

Clint looked at him, raising an eyebrow. „Are you sure you want to do that?“ 

„Oh, don´t worry, nothing fancy just a little trick“ Loki assured him, grinning at him.

Clint motioned for him to go on, smiling evilly. 

With a small movement, too small for anyone really to notice he let a set of smaller knives apprear in front of him and an apple. Gasps were heard in the room. Slowly he took the apple and began cutting it with his knife, holding the pieces out to Clint to take them. Clint shook his head smiling and took one of the offered pieces. While eating it he watched as some left the room in a hurry. 

Still smiling he heard how the whispering began. It amazed him everytime how fast people would spreat rumors. By the end of the day people would swear Loki was about to kill one of them with a knife he created, Clint thought. Listening to the whispering he heard a hissed „freak of nature“ at his right. Without looking directly at the source of the insult he threw one of the knives at the offender. Another shocked gasp and a very unmanly shriek was heard. 

„You missed!“ Loki commented not looking up from cutting the apple.

„What a pity!“ Clint answered smiling. 

The room emptied itself in a matter of seconds. 

„One would think these people would be less fearful“ Loki mused in a monotone voice.

Standing up he let his creations vanish again, earning himself a glare from Clint. „I was still eating that“ Clint muttered.

Loki sighed. „C´mon I am pretty sure we have to be somewhere by now and you were the one who listened to the suit yesterday!“ he animated Clint. 

„Yeah, I am coming. You know, if the whole SHIELD thing doesn´t work out we could always open a weigh losing thing. Could make millions.“

„Yeah I know, women would love us because of they could eat without having to worry about calories!“ Loki finished unenthusiastic. Clint loved that idea though Loki wasn´t so sure what the long term efect on eating his creations were. His friend was different for he could see through his illusions and seemed unaffected by them. But normal people? Killing a few diet crazy housewives didn´t really agree with Loki. 

 

The training room, Clint insisted they were in the right room, was empty. Not even an instructor was present. Loki sighed and sat down on the floor with his back to the wall. Clint walked around the room and took everything in. He was itching to explore the ventilation system, Loki knew that. He created a bow and some arrows for the impatient archer who took them with glee. 

Half an hour later someone entered the room starteling Loki who dropped the illusion in that instant. „Hey!“ Clint exclaimed. Loki apologised and motioned to the intruder. 

„Probationary Agents Barton and“ a short pause. He didn´t really have a last name for he grew up in the circus and nobody ever cared enough for him to give him one. 

„Odinson“ Clint prompted.

„Odinson, please accompany me to my office!“ Coulson said turning around and walking away. 

„We are in trouble!“ Clint joked grinning. Loki only shook his head and followed the man.

 

At Coulson´s office the man himself started to speak again. „Here are the forms you got to fill out concerning your moring activity. And Odinson, the lab seems to have lost you blood sample. They require a new one, please drop by medical sometime until tonight.“ Clint grabbed the forms and held one out to Loki before dropping himself on the couch in the office. Loki sighed and sat down on one of the chairs beginning to fill the form out. 

If Coulson was surprised by that he didn´t let it show. After finishing it in silence Loki got up and gave it to Coulson. 

„I will drop by the medical right now, Sir.“ Coulson nodded at him. Clint smiled to himself but didn´t stop writing. After Loki left Clint got up himself handing over his report. 

„Thank you, Probationary Agent Barton.“ Clint mock saluted and left. 

Later that day Clint met Loki again at dinner. „Where have you been?“ he inquired.

„Got our stuff thinking that we will stay here for a while. Did anybody else notice?“ 

„No, nobody realised that you weren´t you. The agent from this morning got in trouble. Seems like he left the grounds without any permission.“

„Pity for him!“ Loki said sarcastically. Clint shrugged and began eating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the last name of Loki, I didn´t want to use Laufeyson for a reason which will be explained later on. I chose Odinson for the reason that he was the major God in norse mythology and Loki was named after norse mythology after all.


	4. Chapter 4

Three years later and both of them were Level five agents. They got far pretty fast earning some mistrust from other agents.

Most of the time SHIELD wouldn´t let them have missions together for they were used for total different ops. Clint was mainly good for the staying in the distance whereas Loki used his talents for close up ops. After working on different jobs before, they didn´t really mind most of the time. Not surprisingly Coulson wasn´t their handler in every mission and they had to go through various handlers over the time. 

 

Loki didn´t have a problem with them for he could manipulate them into thinking he was a perfect asset but Clint had a few issues with some. They gave wrong orders he denied to follow. Loki offered to take care of it but Clint always declined. Nobody was harmed and Coulson only made him fill out paperwork and put him on probation a few times. 

Back at the headquarters Clint liked to scare junior agents with his dropping out of the vents and sometimes Loki would help with some illusions. There were a lot of rumors about them circulating under the agents making them fear them. Medical was still after Loki´s blood and Coulson had realised that the chance of ever getting it were very slim. All in all they were happy at SHIELD. They trusted Coulson. He knew almost everything about them except the whole magnitude of Loki´s gift.

Over the years he got stronger. Now he could control his illusions for days without needing to be present. He could also control the mind of others but didn´t use it often only if necessary. It felt wrong controlling somebody else. Forcing them to do everything he wanted. Shapeshifting was no big deal anymore and now he could also destroy some stuff with energy balls as Clint called them. SHIELD knew about the illusions and the shapeshifting, though they thought he needed to be present for them to sustain. The mind controlling and the whole power blast thing remained a secret. Clint wanted to tell Coulson but Loki feared that SHIELD would see him as a treat fearing that he would manipulate them to his will.

 

Not every mission went by without any complications. Both got hurt a couple of times but nothing more serious than a broken bone or concussion. 

Clint was out on a mission in South America when he felt a sudden brooding in his mind. He and Loki didn´t use the whole talking telepathically thing as often anymore for they both learned to trust any communication advice SHIELD gave them. Clint knew Loki was on some mission in Russia and wouldn´t try to contact him if it wasn´t necessary. He tried to focus on the sudden change but his handler was ordering to take the shot. Pushing the thought out of his mind he concentrated on his misson again. On the flight back to New York he tried to contact Loki but had no sucess. Not worrying too much about it for Loki often didn´t answer when he was on a mission, he closed his eyes to catch some sleep. 

At headquarters he made his way to Coulson to debrief him on the mission. Walking into his handler´s office he suddenly felt a sharp pain nearly knocking him off his feet. Coulson was by his side in an instant. 

„Barton, Clint talk to me!“ he ordered him. „Are you hurt?“ 

Clint shook his head. He didn´t get hurt on the mission and everything was fine a moment ago. Coulson led him to the couch where he sat down. 

„Sir, where is Loki?“ he asked. 

„Odinson is in Russia on a mission with Agent Caine. Why do you ask?“ Coulson inquired.

„I think something is wrong“ he replied.

 

Russia was not good. Not at all. His handler, Agent Caine, didn´t listen to him when he warned her that the building seemed insecure. She ordered some of her junior agents to walk into it and look for a possible treat. 

Loki shouldn´t even be on the mission, it was a milk run at most. An easy in and out which took a turn for the worst pretty quick. Not a mission which would require his presence, he thought while walking with the junior agents through the building.

One of the junior agents triggered some kind of device which closed down all the exits, locking them in a death trap. Loki swore under his breath. The junior agents got scared and panicked a little. The comunication device to his handler was out too. This was the reason Loki hated that stuff. He tried to contact Clint but was blocked. 

The agents around him were panicking even more at the realisation that they were on their own. He tried to calm them down, creating soothing illusions and thought about how to get out of there. May, his second in command on the mission, looked slightly alarmed at one corner of the room. He saw it too. 

There was a small explosive with a timer on it, slowly ticking away. He ordered everyone to leave the room as soon as possible trying to get to another floor, the farthest away from it. 

May herded the agents out of the room. He followed them when he noticed that they were one short. Cursing he turned to May and told her to get the others to safety. Loki found the missing agent sitting in front of a computer, down loading some files.

„Agent Tyler, we have to go!“ 

„One moment, Sir, I have it in one minute.“ 

„Tyer we don´t have a minute!“ he barked at the agent. Tyler didn´t jump at that but remained focused on his task. Gun shots were heard from the distance. Loki sighed in relief knowing that May and the others found a way out. Apparently they got company.

„Tyler, we have to leave right now“ he ordered. The agent grabbed his usb stick and shot him a grin.

„All clear, we can go now“ 

Shaking his head he led the agent in the direction of which he sent May before. Outside he was met with the noise of shots being fired. The building behind them exploded. The sudden impact threw him and Tyler trough the air. 

He woke up in a pile of shatters from the building. Looking around he noticed Tyler laying unconscious on the floor a couple feet away. No one else was in their vincinity. Loki stood up, wincing as he did. He touched his left side, feeling blood on his hand. Cautious he pushed up the shirt revealing a long cut along his side. It did hurt a lot more than it should, Loki mused. He put pressure on it and pushed a bandage he created on it.

Walking up to Tyler he changed his apperance, hiding his wound, so he wouldn´t scare the agent. Loki bend down to him, wincing again and nudged the man. With a start the man sat up, looking around in confusion.

„What happened?“ 

„The building exploded. Do you have any comunication device on you?“ Loki asked Tyler who shook his head.

„Great“ he muttered. „Can you walk?“ the agent nodded standing up. 

„I think I only broke my arm, Sir. Are you okay Sir?“ 

Loki smiled at that. „Yeah, don´t worry. Let´s go then. We have to get to the meeting point.“

 

Loki hoped that their handler would still be there. More often than not, handlers seemed to leave their assets behind if the situation called for it. He felt the blood slowly creeping through the shirt with every step he took. Tyler talked about everything he saw. ´Clearly under shock´, Loki thought but let him talk. After an hour of walking they reached their meeting point which was abbandoned. Tyler paled while Loki cursed his handler. 

„They will come for us Sir, right?“ 

Loki looked at the agent and thought about how young he looked. He knew that Tyler was only five years younger than himself but at that moment he looked much younger than twenty-three.

„Yeah, they will come back“ he lied to him.

Loki knew it would be the best to keep moving at least until they would find some kind of civilisation but he couldn´t bring himself to take one more step. He sat down in the abbandoned warehouse leaning against a wall. He ordered Tyler to survey their location in hopes of finding some electronic device they could use and it gave Tyler something to do stopping his thoughts from going in circles. 

 

After fifteen minutes Tyler came back with two bottles of water and the news that all electronic devices were destroyed but maybe he could fix them. Loki just nodded and took the water grateful for it. 

Getting up from the floor he walked to the bathroom. After closing the door he dropped his apperance and looked at the wound. The bandage was soaked with blood and the cut seemed a lot deeper than he had first thought. Keeping up the illusion was draining him too. He took some water and cleaned the wound superficially. Creating another bandage, he pushed it back on the wound. He felt that his illusions wouldn´t keep up for much longer. 

Shapeshifting back to his state before the wound he walked out of the small bathroom. Tyler sat on the floor focused on the electronics in front of him. Loki saw that he made himself a makeshift bandage for his arm.

He heard how the boys stomach growled, causing the boy´s ear to go pink. With a sigh he created two apples and tossed the boy one. At his questioning look he told him to eat it. 

„It is a mere illusion and you won´t get any nutrients from it but it is make believe. Your stomach will think you ate something, stopping you from feeling hungry all the time. Don´t worry, it is not dangerous“ he explained. 

Tyler still looked suspicous before biting into the apple watching Loki do the same. „It´s sweet!“ he exclaimed after the first bite making Loki smile. 

 

They sat in silence until some noise from outside made both freeze. Loki motioned for Tyler to stay quiet before casting a bigger illusion over both of them hiding them from whoever was outside. A woman walked in. She was dressed in a black jumpsuit and had red hair. It took a moment for Loki to realise that he knew the woman. Clint´s woman from his dreams. Dropping the illusion on himself, but leaving the other agent under it he revealed himself to her. She wasn´t starteled by his sudden appearance.

 

„What do you want here?“ he asked her, standing up from the ground.

„I noticed someone walking in here and was curious!“ she stated in a bored tone. Her gaze flickered for a moment to the spot where Tyler was sitting but her expression didn´t tell him if she could see him. He saw how the young agent moved away from her gaze and noticed that her eyes didn´t follow him. Relieved that she couldn´t see through his illusions he took a step closer to her.

„Still doesn´t explain why you are here!“ he told her. 

She focused on him with a glare. „I know you! You are the one from New York. The plitican, do you remember? You tried to kill him but were too late!“ she said monotone.

„That was a long time ago, Black Widow“ If she was surprised that he knew her name she didn´t show it.

„Where is your partner? Did you drop him in favor for working for the good guys?“ she inquired. 

„No, he is working for them too, just somewhere else.“ 

„You can drop the illusion. If I wanted to kill the both of you, I would have done it already“ she argued.

Looking into her eyes, trying to detect if she was honest he dropped his illusion revealing Tyler. 

„You were abbandoned by your handler. That is why you can´t trust anybody in this world. Even the supposedly good ones will leave you behind.“ she proclaimed. 

„They will come back to get us!“ Tyler defended their agency. The widow looked doubtful at Loki who shrugged. 

„We will find a way out of here, with their help or without it“ he said calmly. Tyler´s shoulders sacked a little at the revelation but he trusted Loki to get them out of there.

„You can always change your sides again, I know some people who would pay a lot better than your agency to get you back at their service“ she tried to persuade him, testing his loyalty. „You only have to leave your little puppy behind and come with me!“

Tyler looked at him with wide eyes fearing his answer. Without speaking a word he invated her mind. „Don´t think you can tempt me, Natasha Romanoff. I can see that you tired of your life, all the killing of people who sometimes didn´t deserve to die. Some of them were good people, had families. But you brutally murdered them without any doubt!“ 

„Get out of my head.“ she yelled internally at him. Grinning he walked up to her, intending to take a huge risk. 

„Don´t think that is all that I can do, Natasha. You can leave or stay and trust me!“ he whispered in her ear. 

Wide eyed she stared at him before she changed back to her blank expression. Tyler looked at them confused. She gave him a nod.

„I saw one of your helicopters landing not too far from here, I could led you to them“ Loki looked at her. He couldn´t take any walks, no matter how short they were, without breaking down himself. 

„Go and get them to come here“ he told the Widow. 

She looked suspicious. „They won´t trust me“ she argued.

„He will trust you“ he said to her. Loki didn´t try to reach out to Clint since the time in the building fearing draining himself even more. Tyler watched their exchange warily. When she turned to leave, he spoke up.

„How can we trust her that she won´t set up a trap for us?“

„We can´t know that for sure, but I trust her!“ Loki spoke evenly. He didn´t see Natasha smile for a moment to herself. 

Clint exited the helicopter with Coulson in tow. 

Caine had explained to them that the building exploded with Loki and some other agent still inside. She thought they didn´t survive and left the scene without checking for them. Clint was furious.

If Loki was dead it was his fault. Again. He was the one who decided that they should join SHIELD. That they should trust somebody else for a change.

Coulson was furious as well as far as Clint could tell. He looked like his stoic self but his aura was more menancing than normally. He ordered the female agent to head back to New York to explain to Fury how she would leave one of his best assets behind without checking if he was really dead. The woman paled with fear. Wheter it was from the mentioning of Fury or the pure terror at standing in front of Coulson, Clint couldn´t tell.

One of her subordinates, Agent May, offered to fly them to the exploded building to look at the remains of it. Both men took her offer and now here he was standing between the wreckage of what was once a building. Coulson and some other agents were looking for Loki too. 

 

When he looked up he was faced with the redhaired woman of his dreams. „I know where your friend is!" She stated calmly.

„Then take me to him!“ he looked back for Coulson and found him watching their exchange warily. He nodded at the man and followed the woman. Coulson followed them both a few steps behind. 

 

Loki went to the bathroom again, examining his wound again. The bandage was soaked again and he wondered if he could keep up his appearance for any longer. He hoped that he did the right thing to trust the woman solely based on Clint´s dreams. If she betrayed them, they wouldn´t survive. Tyler had no chance against her and he was too weak to fight for a longer period. He changed his bandages again, noticing that it got harder to create them. He walked out again, with his changed appearance and sat down on the floor again, wincing when doing so. He put his head against the wall, closing his eyes. Tyler watched him warily.

„Is everything alright, Sir?“ 

„Yes, Agent, don´t worry. Just tired of waiting!“ he replied wearily. 

Suddenly they heard noises. He couldn´t find the energy to create any illusion. 

„They are here!“ he told Tyler. „Go and get your arm checked. I´ll be right behind you“ he ordered the young man. He hoped that he didn´t just sent the young agent in his certain death. Tyler hesitated for a moment before he went and towards the noise. 

He felt relieved as he heard the voices of Clint and Coulson. Smiling he closed his eyes again. 

 

An young agent walked towards them with a bandage around his arm.

„Agent Tyler, where is Agent Odinson?“ Coulson asked him. 

The agent stood still turning around. „He said he would follow me, Sir“ he answered somewhat confused. 

Cursing Clint ran inside the building, up the stairs. 

The picture he found wasn´t very pleasant. Loki sat on the floor, blood running from his left side. His face was pale and his hair hang lifelessly of his head. His eyes were closed. „Loki!“ Clint yelled, running to his side, sitting down next to him. He took of the bandage which was soaked with blood. The cut was nasty.

„Hello, my brother, you found me! Did you send Tyler to medical?“ he inquired.

Clint huffed a laugh. „You are bleeding out here but still your only concern is some junior agent? What happened?“ 

„Building went boom. We were too close to it. Please tell me whatever is on the usb stick was worth it!“ he spluttered. 

Coulson and the Widow entered the room. Coulson on the phone requesting medical assistance.

„I found her, Clint, the red haired woman of your dreams. Now your set is complete“ Loki said looking Clint in the eyes, smiling. 

„Yeah, you did“ Clint chuckled. 

„Medical will be here in under five minutes“ Coulson noted from a few steps away from them. Loki looked up.

„Coulson, Sir, looks like you will get my blood at last.“ Coulson huffed a laugh at that. At that moment a medical team stormed into the room pushing Clint to the side to care for Loki.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enter the Black Widow! I hope you liked the chapter. Still writing on the ending, it is far more difficult than expected for I am really not that good at battle scenes! And I had to write a short Destiel drabble which my friend pushes me to extend to maybe a couple of chapters....but I will finish it so don´t fear! Please r&r! Thanks for your kudos and comments!!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can´t believe that I have nearly 400 hits! Thank you so much!!

Loki woke up in a dark room to the beeping of some monitors by his bedsite. He looked around in the darkness recognising some figure sitting on the chair beside him. He tried to sit up but winced at the sudden pain on his left side. The figure in the chair moved, woken up by the sudden noise. 

„Loki! You are up!“ Clint said to him.

„How long was I out?“ 

„Only a few days“ Loki nodded.

„How do you feel?“

„Like a building exploded too close to me“ he replied regretting it at an instance as he saw Clint grimacing at that mental image.

„How is Agent Tyler?“ he asked to change the topic. 

„He is fine, broke is forearm. He is back at New York already helping R&D to process the usb stick. Coulson said he will be transferred there.“

„That´s good, he wasn´t cut out for the field. Coulson and the Black Widow?“

Clint took a breath. „They are still here, waiting for you to wake up. The Widow didn´t say a word while you were out. He will brief you in the morning“ a pause. „Don´t worry about your blood sample, somehow there was a mix up and yours got lost“

„It´s a shame! Coulson will be disappointed“ Loki said smiling.

„He will survive“ Clint replied smugly. 

 

The next morning doctors talked to him about his injuries. Loki didn´t really listen. He felt better and wanted to leave the hospital as fast as possible. Clint stood by his side, nodding when he was expected to. Bored he poked the minds of his doctors suggesting them to leave without leaving a trace he was ever in their mind. Clint glared at him as the doctors sudddenly left the room without giving any explaination. 

„You shouldn´t have done that.“ he lectured him.

„I was bored and either way you have no right to lecture me Mr escaping through the vents with a broken leg“ Clint was silent. 

Somebody knocked on their door. Loki voiced for them to come in. Coulson and a handcuffed Black Widow entered the room. „Coulson, Sir! Black Widow“ Loki greeted them. 

„Agent Odinson, Miss Romanoff requested to talk to you!“ he said in a monotone voice, his face emotionless. 

„Oh, alright. Before you say something I want to apologise for my behavior. I don´t normally do this to other people to scare them but the situation was severe and I needed you to help us!“ 

She glared at him while Clint raised an eyebrow in question. Coulson looked confused for a moment before schooling his features back to a mask.

„Do the others know? Does SHIELD know what you are capable of?“ The Widow wanted to know motioning at Coulson. 

„Clint knows as for you Agent Coulson, Sir, I am sorry but I wasn´t sure if I could trust you completely. I was afraid what SHIELD would think of it and maybe would do to me! Cint wanted to tell you from the beginning!“ he apologised.

Coulson gave him a long stare, his eyes showing some hurt at the missing trust in him. 

One second they were in the hospital room, the next they were in Coulson´s office. Both, Coulson and Romanoff were shocked for a moment. „I can create any illusion you want for how long you want. The shapeshifting you have seen with your own eyes. I can manipulate someones mind, extracting their biggest secrets without them ever knowing it and making them do whatever I want. I can also talk to them mentally, everyone not only Clint, Sir.“ He paused for a moment before dropping the illusion. They were back at the hospital.

„And he can create some energy blasts if he wants“ Clint added.

„Yeah, but it needs a lot of energy and I´m still feeling a little drained, especially after the stunt right now“ The agent and assassin looked at him not speaking a word. 

„We never used any of it on any agents of SHIELD for any reason than trying to help“ Clint hurried to say. Loki coughed at that. 

„Okay, sometimes to get the last piece of pie in the canteen“ 

The room was dead silent. 

„See, that´s why I was against telling anybody!“ Loki huffed. 

„You could try to erase it from their mind? I am sure it won´t end like the last time you tried!“ Clint suggested. 

„The last time?“ Coulson inquired suspicious.

„Yeah, a civilian maybe saw Loki create an apple in the subway and reacted a little hysteric about it. We weren´t even with SHIELD then and didn´t think it would end that badly“ Clint replied shuttering at the thought. 

„What happened to the person?“ Romanoff asked. 

„He panicked and I got lost in his mind for a second caging him in his worst memory for about five minutes.“ at the shocked looks he got he hurried. „I got him out and he  
didn´t remember a thing about it. I never tried it again.“ 

„You were in my mind“ Romanoff hissed at him walking towards his bed. 

„Yeah, but I didn´t do anything just looked and talked to you. I mostly only suggest things“ Loki defended himself. 

„What do you mean with suggest?“ Coulson asked. 

„You see, I would ask you to give me your coffee for example. If you really don´t want to, you won´t give it to me but if you fear me or feel like parting with it, you will give it to me. I wouldn´t force you. I could but I wouldn´t.“ Loki tried to explain. 

„Did you never wonder why so many agents bring us their pie?“ Clint joked trying to lighten the mood which caused Loki to roll his eyes.

Loki created an apple and tossed it to Clint to shut him up. Romanoff stared at it while Coulson was used to the sight of it. 

„Do you want a piece?“ Clint asked her. She nodded cautiously. Loki let a knife appear to cut the apple in smaller pieces. After cutting the apple he held the pieces out for the others to take. Romanoff took one, staring at it intendly as did Coulson. Clint bit in his pieces motioning for the others to do the same. Coulson and Romanoff took a hesitated bite. 

„Sweet“ Coulson commented.

„Yes, everybody says that. I can change the flavor of any other food I create but the apple always stays the same.“ Loki complained. 

„I like it“ Clint interjected. 

„What happens to it, after eating it I mean, it is an illusion right?“ Romanoff spluttered. 

„I have no idea, I mean I don´t often offer it to people besides Clint and he doesn´t seem to react any differently to it. We ate them since I was able to do it and I know you won´t get any nutrients from them, you will get exhausted after a while only eating them. You may trick you stomach into thinking it ate something but it is no better than drinking water. You can´t survive on them!“ Loki explained. 

„We will go now. You need rest. Romanoff you come with me, you need to sign your contract, Barton“ Coulson shot Clint a strange look „you can stay here, but get some rest. Tomorrow we are going back to New York“ and then they left the room, leaving the both men alone. 

„That went great, don´t you think?“ Clint said excited. 

„Couldn´t have went much worse to be honest“ Loki replied. Clint shrugged. 

„Do you think he will tell Fury?“ Loki wanted to know.

„Maybe? Don´t worry even if he knows we can always escape if something should happen! They don´t stand a chance“ he tried to calm Loki down.

„I guess. So any theory on why you dreamt about them?“

„No, but I think something big will come our way. I don´t know if that is a good thing, but having them on our side will be important.“

„It would help if I could actually see your dream you know“

„Yeah but I am extraordinary. Can´t manipulate my mind or look at it for any time. Be thankful we can comunicate through it! Lucky me!“ Clint said annoyed. Loki chuckled.

„It is not like I need to read your mind to know what you think. You should go and invite Coulson for a drink in some bar. Talk. I know you want to!“ Loki suggested. 

„Do you know something?“ Clint looked suspiciously at him.

„No, of course not. Have no idea what you are talking about“ 

Clint huffed and walked towards the door. „Have a drink for me too“ he yelled after Clint as he left the room. Clint only waved without looking back.

 

Phil Coulson was sitting in his hotelroom close to the hospital looking at the paperwork in front of him. But instead of finishing them like he would normally do he thought about his two best assets. Barton and Odinson, although he was pretty sure Odinson was a made up name. He never thought he knew everything about them for they were to cautious all the time, but he thought they trusted him.

Phil didn´t know what to do with the new information for it changed a lot. How could he be sure Odinson didn´t use any of his gift, as he called it, on him or any other SHIELD agent for his own benefit. He could have manipulated any mind at SHIELD and nobody would have noticed. 

A knock disturbed his train of thoughts. He opened the door to reveal Barton standing outside his room with a bottle of whiskey. 

„I know it is a lot to take in and I wondered if you want to talk about? If not, there is whiskey!“ he suggested his eyes filled with hope. 

Phil took a step backwards letting the man in. Barton sat down on the couch making himself comfortable. Phil took a seat opposite to him, not bothering about the paperwork. Barton poured two glasses of whiskey putting one in front of him. Talking a gulp of it he thought about the whole situation. The other man looked at him waiting to say something. 

„What really happened with the man on the subway?“ Barton looked somehwhat taken aback. „The both of you are surprisingly bad liars and I can read you a lot better than you think.“ 

The younger man relaxed a little and smiled slightly. „To be honest I don´t really know. It was one of the first really cold nights away from the circus and we had not had anything to eat other than his illusions. It was my idea to hide in the subway station where it would be at least warmer than outside. I went to the bathroom for a moment and when I came back a man was screaming in front of Loki and Loki was panicking. I ran to him thinking that the man was about to attack him when said man broke down on the floor, like if he had a seizure. After a minute or so it was over and the man got up like nothing happened. I asked Loki what happened and he couldn´t tell. He said the man was walking up to him, smiling at him, and the next moment some flashes of children screaming came to his mind. He was trying to block them but didn´t suceed at first but in the end he did get out of the man´s mind.“ 

Phil was silently listening to Clint. „I thought you said that Loki couldn´t talk to you telepathically until you were over twenty?“ 

Clint shrugged. „He didn´t until we were over twenty. I don´t think he tried getting in the minds of strangers after that one time before he was sure enough he could get out before getting in too deep. You still trust him, don´t you?“ 

Phil said nothing thinking about it. „Barton, it´s different now“ 

Barton cut him off. „Like hell it isn´t different! He is still the same man he was yesterday, still the same boy I ran away with. He is the one who kept up appearance for a kid not to panic and hid him from the Black Widow although he was bleeding out. He did everything in his power to secure that the kid and the usb stick would end in the right hands. Nothing changed! If you can´t see that, then I guess I had the wrong impression of you“ Barton all but yelled at him.

„Agent Barton you have to understand that things are different now. For one he clearly is no mutant!“ Phil reasoned. 

Barton deflated a bit. „Yeah, he knows that too, maybe he always knew he wasn´t one. The energy blast things he can do were the final sign that he wasn´t one. His gift or power or whatever is far too many to be a simple mutation. That´s why he doesn´t want his blood taken. Everybody would know that he wasn´t even a mutant but some other kind of freak, as he sees it. He doesn´t know who his parents are or if he even has some or if he is nothing but a failed experiment. Nobody ever came looking for him. He feels safe with SHIELD. People accept him and respect him. Don´t destroy his trust and put him in some cage like a lab rat.“ Barton pleaded. 

Phil looked at him unsure of what to say. „Nobody will do any harm to him, I can promise that much to you!“ he decided, hoping that he wouldn´t regret making that promise one day. Instead he asked Barton about his last mission and wondered what he should do. It amazed him that Barton would willingly throw everything aside to save his friend. Phil felt a peng of jealousy knowing that he didn´t have someone like that in his life. 

 

Clint left the room soon after his discussion with Coulson hoping that everything would have a happy ending. Throwing away their last four years would be hard but they did it before and would probably have to do it again. His heart ached a little knowing that if they walked away this time he would never know the meaning of his dreams. He still had them from time to time and everytime they felt more like a warning that something bad would happen. Soon. 

He could understand Coulson´s worry for he himself had never to deal with the fear of Loki being in his mind without his consent. Loki tried before, trying to get a hang out of it and soon realised that Clint was truly the only person he couldn´t invade if Clint allow it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter! I forgot to mention that the narrator can change from time to time but I think you noticed.  
> And finally a little Phil/Clint! Kind of with a lot of reading between the lines. I don´t think I will give the relationship a more prominent part for I try to focus on the whole Loki&Clint friendship....I will propably mention the relationship only...but maybe I will rewrite some parts of what I have written already and who knows anything can happen!! And yes I will explain what exactly happened at the beginning, namely at the ending of the whole story! I can´t think of anything else of importance....Please R&R and thanks again for all your kudos and bookmarking and most of all reading it!!


	6. Chapter 6

The next day everything was back to normal or so it seemed. Loki left the hospital with Clint hovering over him like a motherhen and Coulson waiting with Romanoff at the airport. Entering the plane Loki feared that the other two would avoid him but they just went on with life like nothing ever happened. Coulson made him file his paperwork explaining everything in great detail. Clint got bored of watching him write and went to annoy Romanoff. Loki smiled at that, curious as how the situation would play out. 

 

Coulson sat opposite of him, filling out some paperwork of his own. After halfway through his paperwork Coulson started talking. 

„Agent Odinson, I won´t tell anybody about what you told me yesterday unless I feel like you are manipulating your fellow agents!“ 

„Yes, Sir! Thank you, Sir!“

„That also means that there will be no suggesting of any kind whether for simple stuff as coffee or for better missions, are we clear?“

„Crystal clear, Sir“ Loki smiled to himself thankful to the man.

Coulson started to write again before he stopped for a second time. „Did you ever invade my mind, Odinson?“ he asked him without looking at him. 

Sighing Loki replied. „Just once, Sir. Clint wanted to see whether you were willing to give your coffee to him. It was during our first year in SHIELD, Sir.“

Coulson furrowed his eyebrows clearly trying to remember said incident.

„It was a negative, Sir“ Loki added going back to writing his reports.

A sly smile was shortly seen on his supervisors lips before it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. 

 

The coffee incident which happened three months later was none of Loki´s fault, really. Natasha, as the Black Widow allowed them to call her, and Clint had teamed up on him pestering him on finding out if they could get Fury´s coffee. Clint promised to make sure that Coulson was not at the headquarters when they wanted to do it. 

Never again would he trust Clint with checking their surroundings. 

They were sitting in the canteen waiting for Fury´s reaction to Loki´s suggestion to share his coffee with Natasha, as Loki and Clint clearly had no chance in hell of having any sucess, as Coulson walked in. Fury was about to make his way to their table as Clint kicked him under the table aborting the mission. A slightly confused Fury shook his head before he turned around and walked out of the canteen. 

They didn´t need to be mind readers to read Coulson´s mind in that moment. Sheepish they got up and walked over to him. He told them to meet him at his office. The walk to the office was eerily silent except for Clint who blamed Natasha for all of it. Like children who did something wrong standing in front of their parents, they were standing in front of Coulson. He gave out three incident reports to them with the same sly smile Loki had seen before. No one questioned the reports.

 

Their little group of three soon was more infamous than before. Baby agents feared them and the higher ups thought of them as a menace. It didn´t help that every few months new recruits thought they had to undermine one of them. Natasha didn´t do any training and was a level five agent from the beginning. Loki and Clint moved over the course of two years to a level seven agent as did Natasha. Coulson was still their supervisor. 

Natasha and Loki were resigned to the fact that Clint was pining over Coulson, but would never do something about it. They were pretty sure Coulson wasn´t against dating Clint but was completely obvious to him. Natasha tried her best to get Clint to do something about the UST as she called it though nothing ever happened. Loki tried to tell her that the both men pinned after each other the minute they saw each other. 

 

One day Coulson ordered Loki and Clint to come with him to New Mexiko while Natasha had to go to California for some other mission. Clint bet him that she would have to deal with Stark, which Loki wouldn´t want to believe. 

At New Mexiko they watched over some artefact in the ground which was nothing special for the first few days. He and Clint scared some of the junior agents and tried to pass the time as quickly as possible with daring each other to do stuff. 

One dare led to Loki walking up to the artefact, a hammer. Clind dared him to touch it and to try to lift it up. Loki thought it was a stupid dare, not wanting to do it which caused Clint so call him a coward. 

So here he was now, standing in front of the stupid thing. Clint was watching him waiting for him to complete the dare as a hunk of a man stormed the base. Everyone was on alert waiting for Coulson to give out orders. Loki used his location to his advantage creating an illusion hiding the artefat with it. The man walked up to him, staring at him intently.

„You don´t belong to Midgard!“ the man boomed „Drop your illusions and give me Mjolnir back!“ 

Loki was confused by this for one he was another person who could say he was using some illusion and for another he didn´t know what Midgard was and why he didn´t belong.

Coulson gave the order to capture the man as the man was able to destroy the illusion and tried to take the artefact. Loki reacted a moment to late to hinder him from doing so but watched as the man broke down, not able to pick the hammer up. 

For a moment nothing happened until the man turned to Loki and was about to attack him as Loki finally reacted and overpowered the man. Other agents came running in bringing the prisoner away. Coulson, followed by Clint walked up to him. 

„What happened in here, Agent?“ he asked with a blank expression. 

„I am sorry, Sir, but I have no idea.“ Loki replied. Coulson took a long look at him before turning to Clint. 

„Agent Barton, accompany your friend to medical.“ Clint walked up to Loki as Coulson walked away.

„Loki what happened, one minute you were in your illusion the next it dropped for no reason at all!“ he said alarmed. 

Loki didn´t listen to any of it too lost in his own thoughts. „He said something about me not belonging, Clint!“ Loki whispered. „Maybe he knows something!“ Loki walked away with Clint on his heels. 

„Loki, listen Coulson is in with him, he won´t let you talk to him, especially not after what just happened“ Clint tried to reason. 

„Then let´s think of a diversion! Clint, I need to talk to this man!“ he snapped at his friend.

„Alright, I´ll think of something“ 

An agent was walking in hurry up to them. „Do you know where Agend Coulson is?“ 

Clint looked at Loki, winking. „Yeah, we are on our way to him. What do you need?“ 

The agent explained that there was some man wanting to speak to the unknown prisoner. Clint offered that he would tell Coulson for he was already on his way to him. The agent looked unsure but walked away.

„Easy as pie“ Clint joked. 

 

They walked to Coulson who just exited the room.

„Sir, there is someone for the prisoner!“ Clint told him. Coulson looked suspicious. 

„Agent Odinson the prisoner is asking for you, get everything you can on him!“ Coulson ordered him motioning for Clint to follow him to the man´s visitor.

Loki took a deep breath and walked in. 

„You requested my presence?“

„What are you doing here on Midgard?“ the stranger asked him. 

„Midgard, Sir?“ 

„Yes, this realm here, Midgard, you don´t belong here!“ the man stated.

„Sir, you must confuse me with somebody else. I am an agent of SHIELD and I am born here on Earth uh Midgard“ Loki said a little unsure.

„Nonsense! Your magic is not from here!“

They were interrupted as the door opened again and Coulson and another man entered.

„Agent Odinson, this is Dr. Selvig he is here to pick up his exchange student Thor North.“ 

The man suddenly jumped up from his seat. „You are no son of Odin, I know that for sure for he is my father!“

Dr. Selvig laughed a little hysterically. „I am so sorry agents, but he had a little too much to drink. He doesn´t know what he is talking about. Please don´t mind him!“ 

„Dr. Selvig I hope you are aware that he broke into a goverment facility and attacked one of our own. He will have to face consequences for his doings!“ Coulson explained to the man. 

„Yes, of course Agent Coulson, I will tell him that the moment he is sober! C´mon big guy, we got to go!“ He led the man out of the room.

„What did he tell you, agent?“ Coulson wanted to know from him. 

„Nonsense, Sir, he talked about Midgard.“ he replied. 

Coulson gave him a sharp nod dismissing him. He hurried out of the room.

 

„Hey Loki, what happened?“ Clint asked him following him. 

„Midgard is earth, Clint, he told me I am not from earth!“ Loki told Clint, his voice shaking. 

„That´s not true, Loki. I mean, c´mon you are human! Maybe not a normal human but human nontheless!“ Shaking his head, Loki looked Clint in the eyes.

„He said that my magic or gift or whatever it is, it isn´t human!“ he spluttered turning away from Clint. He took a step back and hurried away. 

„Wait, shit, Loki wait up!“ Clint called after him. 

Without turning back he left the facility. No one seemed to notice him as he walked away. He focused on creating some ride to get him into the town when Clint reached him. 

„Man, you really are fast!“ He saw the car and turned to Loki. „Where are we going?“ getting into it.

Loki smiled and sat himself in the driver seat. 

„The town, someone will have seen some huge blond man.“

„What will we do when we find him?“ 

„We ask him what he means with not being human!“ Loki said, grinning at Clint as they drove into the town.

After asking a few people, they found a bar where Dr Selvig was often seen. Inside the noticed the good doctor without his supposedly exchange student.

„Dr Selvig, right?“ Loki inquired.

The man turned to them, looking at both but was clearly slightly drunk. „Agents, it´s good to see you again! What can I do for you?“ he asked cheerily. 

Clint grimaced. 

„We wanted to talk to your exchange student, Thor North!“

„Ah, Thor he is somewhere over there!“ he motioned to the dark corner of the bar.

„He is sulking because his hammer didn´t let herself picked up!“

Clint shot Loki a look, who shrugged.

„Thank you, Doctor.“ 

 

They walked to the darker area of the bar.

„Mr North!“ Loki called. No answer. „Thor!“ he tried with sucess as a drunken „here“ was heard.

„Great, he is drunk too“ Clint muttered. 

„Thor, do you remember me?“

„Of course I do, you are a lost one like me and you brought a friend! Greetings, friend of fellow lost comerade“

Clint´s face was a mix between shock and amusement. 

„My name is Clint Barton uh Thor“ he introduced himself. 

„Did your friend hit you with the moving vehicle, like my fair Jane did?“ Thor asked loudly.

„No, he didn´t hit me with a moving vehicle. We grew up together!“ Loki replied while Clint was busy trying not to laugh. „Thor, look you told me that you knew I wasn´t from here, why do you think that?“ Loki tried to get any information out of him. 

„My friend, your magic, its energy is different from the energy of this realm. It´s similar to the one at my home, Asgard. Maybe my mother, Lady Frigga, could tell you where you are from, but I am sorry I can´t bring you to Asgard for the Bifröst is closed for me. I can´t take you to her. I have to stay on Midgard until I show myself worthy“ Thor ended his speech in a sob. 

Clint turned to Loki. „Isn´t Frigga the one from the norse mythology, you know the wife of Odin and mother of Thor?“ 

„Yeah you are right!" Loki replied absent minded before he looked wide eyed at Clint "He is the Thor, the God of thunder! The one with the hammer...SHIELD found Thor´s hammer!“ Loki exclaimed in disbelief. 

 

„Yeah, you´ve solved the puzzle. Here you have a cookie, c´mon big guy say bye bye to the nice agents“ A young woman with dark hair said to them and was about to lead Thor out of the bar.

„Wait, you can´t just take him with you!“ Clint stopped her from walking away.

„Says who? Do you have a warrant for him?“ 

„No, but we need to talk to him!“ Loki interjected. 

„Get a warrant and you can have him!“ She yelled back to them leading Thor outside.

The two agents looked after them, defeated. Clint pulled one arm over Loki´s shoulder and led him to the bar counter siting down with him. 

„Two double whiskeys, please“ he ordered. He raised his glass motioning for Loki to do the same. „To you possible being an norse God!“ he said grinning before he drunk it´s content in one go. Loki smirked and gulped his own drink. 

They ordered another few glasses each before the bar closed its doors, leaving them nowhere to go but back to the SHIELD facility.

 

Being drunk and going back to their rooms without letting anyone know they left their post, was seemingly easy for both of them. If they hadn´t been drunker than drunk. 

It seemed that their understanding of being unsuspicious, in their intoxicated shape, detered a lot from the definition of all the other agents of the facility. Climbing a fence in a drunk state, because Clint insisted that he saw a fence leaving the facility and he believed that meant climbing over it, wasn´t really a way to not let people notice you, especially if said fence was under surveillance. To say their supervisor was not amused was an understatment. 

 

Phil wasn´t really surprised as some agent told him that they found his missing assets. After all everyone on the base was looking for them. 

What surprised him was the state they were in. Seeing them both drunk of their mind was a first. He walked into the room his agents were sitting or better said slumbing against the furniture in. 

„Agent Barton, Agent Odinson, what do you have to say to your defense?“ he should have known that it had no sense to talk to them, but he hoped they were more sober than it seemed.

„Look Clint it is Agent Coulson!“ Odinson exclaimed overly excited.

„Agent Coulson what are you doing here? Why aren´t you in the facility?“ Barton slurred. 

„You shouldn´t be here, Sir!“ Odinson lectured him waging his finger at him. 

Phil was perplexed for a moment caught between letting out a groan in frustration or laugh at the absurdity of the situation. 

„No, Clint, we left the bar, we are on our way back to our rooms! Don´t tell Agent Coulson you saw us, Agent, Sir“ Odinson said trying to help Barton up.

„Did we climb the fence already? I am sure we have to climb over it!“ Barton babbled. 

Phil was near to facepalm himself in fustration, destroying his image of being a robot.

„Here Clint, have an apple!“ Odinson offered. 

Phil couldn´t react fast enough before the man tried to create a simple apple which at first seemed fine, surprising Phil a little, before the apple exploded in hundreds of pieces. 

„Oh, that´s new“ was all Odinson said.

„Do it again!“ Barton encouraged him, laughing at the sight of the exploded apple.

„Agent Barton, Agent Odinson you will not create anything anymore! Both of you will go back to your rooms, that is an order!“ Both men stood still, saluted him and yelled a „Yes, Sir“ back at him. 

Leading them outside the room he grabbed the first agent in sight ordering to make sure the two men arrived at their rooms safely and stayed there. The agent didn´t look thrilled at seeing them both laughing, leaning against each other.

After they were out of his side he heard an explosion and an exciting laugh from his agents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the longer wait but the last week was busy and I had no time to update...I am still writing the ending if anyone wonders! It is far more difficult than I thought and I get busier with each week that passes for university starts soon again and I have a lot to study....  
> Yeah I know that Thor had a different name given by Selvig but when I wrote it I forgot about it and I have no idea anymore what he was called in the movie and I didn´t think it would be that important. And it is an AU so live with it!  
> Thank you for reading my fanfiction, I hope you enjoy it and Thanks a lot for bookmarking it or giving kudos!! Comments would be lovely too but no pressure!


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning Clint woke up to a loud pounding noise. After somebody yelled something the pounding stopped. He groaned and shifted a little only to realise somebody was in his bed, holding him close. Slowly he opend his eyes to be met with the dark hair of Loki who was drapped across his body. 

„Loki, wake up, you suffocate me!“ He said to the still sleeping man trying to shove him of his body. „Loki, c´mon wake up! Let go of me!“ But nothing helped as Loki held him only closer surprising Clint with his strength. „For being smaller and less muscular than me you are surprisingly strong! What are you, a damn koala?“ Clint tried to flee from the still unconscious man. „And here I was thinking we were over the whole sleeping together thing!“ he muttered to himself as someone cleared his throat.

Clint looked up and saw Coulson standing in the room. 

„Shit“ he muttered. „Agent Coulson, Sir, a little help here?“ he motioned to Loki clinging to him. 

Coulson looked as more exasperated as Clint had ever seen him.

„Agent Odinson“ Coulson said loudly.

That woke Loki up with a startle, letting him and Clint fall off the bed. Under curses both men looked up to their handler.

„Good morning, Sir“ Loki greeted the man sheepish.

„Get dressed and meet me at the control room in five minutes!“ Coulson ordered them before he left the room. 

Both men jumped away from each other.

„What are you doing in my bed?“ Clint snapped at Loki. 

„Your bed? This is my room!“ Loki said defending himself. Clint rolled his eyes motioning to his bow. 

„Oh, I am sorry, but you have to realise that all these rooms look the same!“ Loki argued, wincing a little. „Do you also have a headache?“ 

„Not that bad! How did we get back here?“ Clint inquired.

„I have no idea!“ Loki replied. 

Someone knocked on the door yelling that they now had 2 minutes left. Cursing both changed themselves before leaving the room in a hurry. 

 

At the control room Coulson was waiting for them motioning for them to sit down. Both gulped and sat down, noticing that they were the only ones present. 

„Agents, did you have a nice night yesterday?“ Coulson asked them in a nearly sweet tone.

Loki looked a little panicked at Clint. They didn´t say a word. 

„Because after watching two of the best agents of SHIELD climbing drunk over a fence, cheering for each other and then trying to run away from their fellow agents, I don´t doubt that it was a fun night. The best part for me was when one junior agent led me to your holding cell, one might call it, where I was the witness to an exploding apple!“ Coulson finished in a monotone voice.

„We are sorry, Sir, it will never happen again!“

„You are right it won´t happen again for you both are on probation.“ Coulson ruled.

„But Sir, it was the only time something like that ever happened!“ Clint tried to reason. 

Coulson glared at him, his eyes furious. „You both were drunk and entered a goverment facility causing an alarm. You encouraged your partner to create things he clearly had no control over in his state! It could have ended in a disaster!“ Clint gulped. 

„You have to say though, for a secret goverment base it isn´t really good secured!“ He muttered to the horror of Loki.

„Agent Coulson, Sir, it was my fault Agent Barton left the facility!“ Loki came to his rescue. 

„Agent Odinson, that may be the case but I doubt that you forced him to drink until he couldn´t walk anymore. Any responsible thirty year old man“

„twenty-nine“ Clint interjected earning himself a glare from Loki 

„ I apologise, any responsible twenty nine year old man knows where his limits are! You both are dismissed“ he told them. 

 

Both men got up with a „Yes, Sir“ and left the room. Loki gave Clint a shove. 

„Why the hell did you correct him on your age!“ he wanted to know. Clint made a grimace

„It just slipped out.“

Loki rolled his eyes, not believing his life.

„Let´s get something to eat“

Loki hesitated.

„What, he won´t punish for getting ourselves something to eat, c´mon Loki!“ 

 

They entered the makeshift canteen where the noise stopped at that moment. Awkward Clint looked at Loki. 

„Maybe breakfast was a bad idea! Do you think they know about yesterday?“ Loki looked at him clearly annoyed at the attention they were getting.

„No, Clint I am wearing your shirt for everyone to see!“ he replied sarcastically. 

„You do tough!“ Clint remarked. Loki looked down on himself groaning.

„Great, the day couldn´t get any worse!“ 

 

Suddenly the alarm went off and Coulson stormed in giving out orders to everyone except Loki and Clint. He ordered them again to stay at their room. Both felt like little children being sent in a timeout. Not caring for the consequences they hurried after the leaving agents. They arrived at the town where a big something was fighting against Thor and four of his friends it seemed. They weren´t winning that much was clear to Loki and Clint. Charging up front they ran right into Thor.

„My friends, you have come to help us!“ He boomed at them, smiling widely. Both men nodded. „Your help will be appreciated. You my fellow traveler go with Sif and you my midgardian friend go with Fandral. May we be victorious.“

Loki followed the woman into battle, trying to help her with his illusions. At the first she looked at him suspiciously but after they helped her dodge an attack she was grateful. An arrow flew by him, missing him for just a few centimeters but hitting its intended target. The Destroyer, as Sif called the thing, was not slowed down by any of their efforts.  
Loki decided to get closer to it and shot one of his energy blasts at it which was a bad idea it seemed for it was suddenly focused on him.

He heard Clint yell run at him in his mind and created a few illusions of himself hoping it would distract the Destroyer for a while. He was just about to make a run for it as he saw Thor offering himself for the people in the town. Not hesitating the thing slayed Thor. Loki heard Thor´s friend gasp.

He mentally sent Clint the message to leave and get the others out of town, cutting down their channel immediatly. He was too far up front to have any chance of escape. He created another energy blast as an arrow grazed the air beside him. Smiling he kept going. Suddenly Thor´s hammer flew by him landing in the hand of Thor bringing him back to life, it seemed. His friends cheered. 

 

The combat was soon over for Thor had the power of Mjolnir and slayed the Destroyer in no time. Cheers erupted and everybody was celebrating the defeat. Loki sat down on the ground, exhausted. 

„You need to stop playing martyr, Loki“ Clint said to him siting down. „That was the reason you were no good as an assassin“ he chided him. 

Loki laughed at that. His laughter was soon followed by Clint´s. 

„Do you think we still have a job with SHIELD?“ Loki asked him between their laughter. 

„Seeing how you can´t even follow an easy order to stay behind, I doubt that!“ Both jumped up from the ground turning around to face the agent. 

„Yes, Sir!“ 

 

Coulson looked at them, clearly done with their shit. „Though you helped saving the town, so I think I will keep you.“ 

He turned to walk away before voicing something else.

„And Agent Odinson, it is now your duty to explain Director Fury your new gift!“

Loki groaned clearly unhappy. Maybe he could somehow convince Fury that he told him without ever telling him and Coulson knowing that he manipulated him. It didn´t seem possible. Clint smiled like a love sick teenager watching Coulson leave.

„Clint, stop it, somebody will notice!“ Loki told him. 

„Yeah“ Clint sighed clearly not listening. „He is just soo“

„Please, Clint don´t even start! Look, Thor is talking to Coulson, let´s go and find out what it is all about.“ 

 

„Son of Coul, My fair Lady Jane and my friend Lady Darcy would like their papers back and their Ipod“ Thor said a little unsure of the last word.

Coulson nodded and promised to get their stuff back to them. Thor turned around clearly happy with the world when he noticed Loki and Clint. 

„My friends, you helped defeat the mighty foe! I thank you!“ he boomed, hugging them both, nearly crushing them.

„No problem“ 

Clint struggled to breath for a moment after the god finally let go of them.

„Loki, dear fellow traveler, you can come with us back to my mother, Lady Frigga, to inquire your origins!“ he offered Loki. 

Loki looked unsure at Clint. Clint clapped him on his back and replied for him

„He will go with you, Thor!“ 

„Clint, no I can´t just leave“

„You will come back and maybe you learn something new there“ Clint cut him off, smiling with a fake smile at him. 

„Of course he will come back as will I!“ Thor promised. 

 

Loki still hesitated. On one hand he wanted to get to know his parentage and learn more about what he could possibly do on the other hand was Clint. Clint who was his best friend since they were kids. The person he could not live without.

„No, Thor, sorry but maybe next time. Clint still needs me to go into battle with him!“ he said smiling.

„ I understand, my fellow warriors! Come with me and say your goodbyes to your fellow warriors befor we have to leave!“ Thor led them to his warrior friends.

The three men embraced them in another bone crushing hug, congratulating them on their fighting style. Sif came up to Loki and Clint and gave them a gentler hug. 

„I never thought a Frost Giant would fight side by side with us Asgardians!“ She said smiling to them. 

„Dear Lady Sif, your wisdom is unmatched and only surpassed by my mothers. She is right, of course, my dear friend, how blind was I not to see? You are from the lineage of the Frost Giants of Jotunheim. It saddens me to say that you are the last known one, for the others fell in the battle against my father.“

Clint gave him a concerned look. Loki was quiet, not really sure what he should reply.

„Don´t worry my friend, the disagreements of our fathers should not mold our new found friendship! You are still welcomed as my guest in Asgard and I promise you no harm will come your way, should you decide to come with us!“ Thor told them. „Alas, we have to go, See you soon again!“ 

The group walked away under hollering laughs. 

 

Clint turned to Loki „Are you sure you don´t want to go with them?“

Loki nodded. „Yes, I am pretty sure if I would leave you, you would get yourself in trouble all the time and Natasha would come to get me back not wanting to suffer alone listening to your mooning. And didn´t you listen, it seems I am a mortal enemy of Asgard!“ Loki shuttered.

„Your ancestors were and Thor said he would protect you and I am not mooning over Coulson!“ Clint responded slightly pink in his face. 

„Tell that the CMOC club, we were thinking about calling it the DLNKC but it didn´t really stand for the real reason of our meetings.“Loki joked. „Besides, I don´t sleep well with dead threats hanging over my head!“ 

Loki started walking away towards one of the SUVs from SHIELD to bring them back to the facility. 

„What´s the CMOC? Why did nobody ask me to join it? Is Coulson in it?“ Clint called after him, trying to catch up while Loki merely laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> COMC- Clint moons over Coulson  
> DLNKC- Don´t let Natasha kill Clint
> 
> I am not good at writing battle scenes and the battle scene you just read was like the fifth try on writing it and I got to say it was the best of it! Still writing big battle scene at the end, the other scenes are all written already only the battle is needed and I can finish posting it, so end of sept will be the last chapter, maybe sooner! A lot more of C/C in the chapter, to my own joy for I really like the pairing and I hope you do too. 
> 
> By the way, I know I am writing a total different Clint&Natasha friendship for not Clint, as many others did write it that way, recruited the Black Widow but Loki. It´s not that I don´t like Clint&Natasha but I wanted a strong Loki&Clint bond and Natasha, sadly, stays in the backround but has a stronger bond to Loki. 
> 
> I think that is all I´ve got to say for the chapter!  
> Like always, I hope you enjoyed it! Any comments are welcomed! Kudos and bookmarks will be appreciated as well!! I´ve posted other stories as well, Avengers and Supernatural fandom, so feel free to look at them if you like my writing! 
> 
> And if anybody wants to be my beta or knows someone who looks for someone they could beta, without a pay, I would love to hear from you, for I am really not sure about all my spelling and grammatics, Still no native speaker/writer!
> 
> Thanks again for your kudos and bookmarks!! It makes writing it a lot more fun for I know somebody read my story and liked it!!


	8. Chapter 8

Back in New York, Loki told Fury all about the whole energy blast things, leaving out the alien and mind controlling/reading part. Fury wasn´t showing any emotion to the new information and dismissed him without any word on it. Coulson stayed behind, clearly answering Fury´s questions. 

Loki made his way to Coulson´s office where he was met with Natasha and Clint bickering with each other. Clint was trying to Natasha to let him join their secret club whereas Natasha looked at Loki ready to kill him for spilling the beans. Loki shot her an apologetic smile which she didn´t buy a second.

Coulson walked in on them, not being surprised by their presence in his office at all. Clint complained to him that Loki and Natasha wouldn´t let him join their secret club. For a moment Loki pondered on if Coulson ever wondered when his life had become the life of a kindergarden teacher. He ordered both to let Clint join their club which resulted in a childish Natasha who mouthed „teacher´s pet“ at Clint who therefore pouted. Loki smiled at the scene in front of him, glad to have decided in favor for Earth instead of some foreign realm. 

After Coulson briefed them and dismissed them, Loki stayed behind to talk to the man. The other two agents went off, Clint lamenting to Natasha that he didn´t want to be in their club anymore if she behaved like that. Coulson turned to him, a small smile graced his lips as he watched Clint and Natasha leave.

„Sir, I want to apologise again for what happened in New Mexico. I have a written report for you explaining everything that happened. I would appreciate it, if the content of it could stay between the four of us, Sir“ Loki handed over the report hoping Coulson would understand the meaning of, for he didn´t want to explain everything again so soon after he did with Natasha. He wrote down everything he knew and hoped for the best.

Coulson nodded and Loki left the room.

 

Nothing really changed after the revelation of Loki´s true heritage. Clint and him did some missions together and Clint would still moon over Coulson making both, Natasha and Loki, crazy with it. The CMOC club, Clint only attended the meetings once, still horrified about what he had witnessed, decided to do something in the hopes that Clint would get his happy ending or would get over it. 

The plan was quite simply. They would invite Coulson to come with the three of them to some bar and after a while Natasha and him would leave the two lovebirds alone. Easy as pie.

 

It would have been if it weren´t for two factors. Factor one Coulson wasn´t that easy to persuade to go out and have drinks with them, making Loki slightly wonder if he was wrong about him being into Clint. Factor two was Clint who had to go on a mission the day Coulson finally agreed.

The evening wasn´t unpleasent for Coulson was well liked by Loki and Natasha but Clint moped for days after hearing about it. Not that he had any reason to for the whole evening was rather uneventful with Natasha interrogating Coulson about his past. She didn´t really suceed anyways.

After another few days they were finally able to get to the bar as a group of four. A sucess in Loki´s eyes. He told Clint and Coulson to take a seat while he and Natasha would get them some drinks. Clint looked slightly panicked at the thought of him and Coulson alone when Loki shot him a look, telling him to man up. 

 

They sat down at a small table with Barton having a clear vision towards the entrance and the bar counter. It was in their nature to always observe their surroundings. Phil knew that. Nevertheless Barton looked slightly on edge.

„Everything alright, Barton?“ he asked his asset. 

Barton shot him a small smile. „Of course, Sir!“

Phil didn´t really buy it but let it be. The other man seemed clearly more relaxed when Romanoff and Odinson came to their table with drinks in their hands. Odinson sat down beside Barton and looked expectantly at them. Phil felt slightly insecure at that. Nobody present was a great conversationalist it seemed. 

„Is there anything true about Hill and Fury?“ Romanoff asked bluntly. 

Barton looked slightly shocked whereas Odinson just smiled pleasantly waiting for Phil to speak. 

„Nothing that I would be aware of, Romanoff!“ he replied.

„Ha! Pay up, Natasha!“ Odinson said smiling gleefully at Romanoff who pulled out a five dollar bill handing it over. 

Phil wasn´t surprised about them making bets about various rumors. He was in on some too, not that he would ever admit to some. 

„Don´t you put your bets with Williamson?“ He asked them. 

Odinson smiled dimmed somewhat. „Not always, Sir. Besides Williamson isn´t taking any bets from me since I won against him playing billard!“

„Right, he accused you of manipulating the game, stupid asshole! Even though he is just a crappy player!“ Barton exclaimed. 

„He is a sour loser! Most agents let him win to still be able to place bets with him“ Phil agreed.

Romanoff snorted. „Stupid men!“ 

Barton grinned. They sarted gossiping about the newest rumors running wild around the junior agents concerning their little group. Phil was amused by that. Romanoff told them about various rumors concerning the junior agents making Barton and Odinson laugh.

 

When Phil noticed that their drinks were already empty he offered to get refills but was shot down by Romanoff who told him that she was payingt the next round. She walked to the bar counter with Odinson on her heels who volunteered to help carry the drinks, leaving him and Barton alone again. He wondered if something was true about the rumor of Odinson and Romanoff for a moment.

Barton looked after them and cursed suddenly under his breath. Phil looked at him at that.

„Our drinks will take a while!“ he explained. 

Phil turned around watching as two men talked to Romanoff and Odinson pointing to a billard table. 

„I hope they don´t cause a scene, like the last time“ Phil raised an eyebrow. „People don´t react very well at being played by them. Loki is a great player but he loves to trick people into thinking he is shit at it. That´s part of the reason Williamson doesn´t take his bets anymore, Loki kind of played a little dirty at the game. He didn´t cheat but lost the first game on purpose to bring the stakes up.“ He explained to Phil looking at them.

„He does that often?“ He inquired. 

„Sometimes. We did the trick a lot when we were on the road and needed money but had no job coming up!“ Phil nodded at that. They watched as Odinson lost the first game and bargained with the other men while Romanoff stood at the side watching them. 

 

They watched as Loki and Natasha won the game and like Clint had predicted the men weren´t happy about being deceived. Sometimes he wondered if Loki liked having these arguements. 

The whole thing was pretty quickly over when Loki didn´t even need to look behind him when they attacked. He had one of them pined on the ground without breaking out in sweat, smiling wickedly at the other one. The other man helped his friend up and they turned tail. 

He also watched Coulson watching their exchange. The other man didn´t let any emotion show what he thought about Loki´s idea of fun and shook his head slightly when he saw Loki smiling at them. Clint chuckled at that.

 

Victorious Loki and Natasha came back to their table with their promised drinks. 

„How much did you win this time?“ Clint wanted to know.

„ Two hundred bucks! The waitress didn´t know what hit her when I gave it to her as a tip!“ Loki replied grinning broadly whereas Coulson looked at the bar counter where the waitress was still looking at the money. 

„You should keep the money instead of giving it away all the time“ Natasha complained.

„Don´t need it and the waitress looked like she needed it“ he defended his decision. „Besides I only do it for the fun of it! Those guys will think about it the next time they are about to trick some poor bastard into playing with them.“

They left for the billard tabled shortly after it playing a more serious game againt each other.

„You don´t play?“ Coulson asked him. Clint shook his head. 

„No, I am more the darts kind of guy. Doesn´t mean I am bad at it but it is more Loki´s thing. Do you play?“ 

„Sometimes“ was the reply he got. 

They drank their drinks in silence watching the other two play for a while. 

 

After that night their outings as a group of four became more frequent. Phil noticed how he seemed to grow more comfortable around them. It wasn´t that he wasn´t trusting them but he wasn´t used to hang out with other agents other than Fury, Sitwell and sometimes Hill. Most Agents at SHIELD didn´t want to hang out with their superior. 

Phil was slightly amazed at how at ease the three agents were around with each other. He knew of course that the Black Widow wasn´t made out of ice, as so many agents believed, but it still was new to him how at ease she was around him now. 

Her smiles weren´t a rarity anymore and were more honest than the one he had seen at the HQ. The relationship between Odinson and Barton was pretty much the same as he had already observed at the HQ. 

The only difference was that he now noticed that Odinson wasn´t as serious and innocent as he let others believe. Many of the pranks Barton played had help from Odinson. He was just better at masking his true character than Barton was. 

Their friendship with Romanoff was nothing more than that. They seemed to think of her as a sister who was there to entertain them. She didn´t seem to mind that and let herself be a willing participant in most of their sheming.

Although sometimes it was hard to say who really was in charge of their little group. Phil always assumed Odinson, being the responsible one, was the one saving them from trouble, but now he saw that Barton more often than not stepped in if things got out of control.

One thing was pretty clear though, no matter how drunk they got, Odinson didn´t use any of his tricks in public.

Clint wondered if Coulson, now Phil, noticed how blatantly both, Nat and Loki tried to set them up. 

He knew that it was a lost cause for Coulson was surely not intersted in a man like Clint, considering that Coulson was gay or at least bi. For all they knew Phil could be married to some gorgous woman and had four adorable kids with her. Both Nat and Loki rolled their eyes when he told them his thoughts about Phil´s private life.

Loki called him stupid for even thinking that way but he couldn´t help himself. Nat said worse. Probably, she only cursed in russian glaring at him.

 

Considering this, the COMC, a terrible terrible secret society who made it their goal to make Clint´s life miserable, in Clint´s opinon at least, had finally managed to do so. It´s last plan was the final straw. 

He really didn´t think that Loki would go so far to sent both of them to some nonexistant mission somewhere in Paris. He should have been more wary when Natasha wished him a nice stay in the city of love. Her words, not his. 

The main clue that something wasn´t right, was the hotel. It wasn´t that SHIELD didn´t use nice hotels but this hotel was a whole different level of nice. Five stars of being nice. Clint was surprised but thought, for the small moment he hoped that noone of the COMC had something to do with it, that it was that kind of SHIELD mission. The kind where you needed to infiltrate some higher up. But no.

The moment he looked at Coulson, now Phil, he knew something was wrong. He didn´t look very happy about the whole situation. For a moment Clint thought he had seen something akin to embarrasment written on his handler´s expression. Coulson muttered some excuse before he was off talking furiously into his phone. 

Clint tried his best not to be hurt by the other man´s clear dislike at being alone with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter is more filler than anything else, I believe. And for the cliffhanger I am sorry but I will post the next chapter tomorrow. I didn´t want to write a whole chapter, let alone two, about the Clint/Phil relationship but I started writing it today and then I thought why not and here it is, not quite finished but tomorrow evening (CET) , tuesday the latest, I will post another chapter. The next chapter will focus again more on Loki&Clint and the beginning of the Avengers movie. 
> 
> As always I hope you liked it! Thanks for your kudos, bookmarks and subscriptions as well as comments!


	9. Chapter 9

Phil was furious. How could Maria do something like that! He knew that Nick was to blame as well. They went to far this time. It wasn´t the first time they tried something like that but normally he was able to destroy any plans of theirs and any proofs that they had ever existed. He had never thought that both would take this whole farce to another level and create a mission out of thin air.

He didn´t need to look at Barton, he couldn´t bring himself to call him Clint for he feared the consequences that would may come with it, to see how uncomfortable he was. Phil knew he should have never told his friends about his slight, really tiny, infuration with the other agent. 

He assured them that it was nothing, only a little non meaningful crush, nothing serious but no, they didn´t believe him. But surprisingly, for the last few weeks their match making tries stopped and Phil thought, they finally realised that he was right. He really should have looked into the whole COMC thingy everybody was talking about. 

After telling Maria what he thought about her plan and what will happen to her when he gets back to New York he looked for Barton. Phil found him sitting at the bar of the hotel. He really hoped the other agent didn´t notice that anything was amiss.

 

Clint looked at the whiskey in front of him feeling utterly miserable. His non existent hopes were crushed. He only hoped Coulson was able to find some way back to New York were he would grab his things and would be able to leave without facing any of them ever again. 

Loki would understand. Nat would be fine on her own at SHIELD. And for the COMC, he really hoped that they were better at reading people out in the field or they all were out for some trerrible life lessons. 

He tensed as Coulson sat down beside him motioning for the barkeeper to bring him a whiskey as well. Clint took a rather large sip of his won before he said anything. 

„I am sorry!“ he said. „I didn´t think that they would go as far as“ he was about to go on only to be interrupted by Phil.

„Wait a moment, why are you sorry? It is not your fault, it is mine or better said Hill´s fault.“

Clint looked at him in horror. „Hill as in Deputy Director Hill? She is in the COMC as well?“Clint inquired shocked „Oh my fucking God, I will kill them!“ He muttered furiously hoping that the barkeeper was one of those who refilled without being told. Fortunatly he was. 

Coulson looked at him in question. „What is the COMC exactly?“ he inquired. 

Clint was sure he looked like a deer caught in the head light as he thought about what to tell the other man. Anything was better than the truth.

„Chasing other mindless colleagues, a game some people at SHIELD invented“ the moment he said it he cursed himself for not being a vey creative liar.

A look at Coulson only confirmed it.

„I am surprised that you lasted that long at SHIELD seeing that you are a terrible liar.“ Coulson told him in a tone which was very close to pity. „Now, let´s try it once again, What is COMC?“ 

Clint only saw two options. First one run and never look back. Live a life in a cave somewhere in the nothern wilderness far away from civilisation and mankind. The other was man up and tell the man the truth and hope that he won´t kill you with his mad ninja skills. 

Seeing that he was sitting very close to Coulson the first option was a fail. He could never get away fast enough. 

„Clint moons over Coulson“ he murmured hoping to any God up there, preferable not Thor who was surely in the COMC as well, to come and put him out of his misery.

„What?“ Coulson asked incredously. 

Clint looked at Coulson with a pained look in his eyes. „Please don´t make me repeat it!“ 

 

Phil couldn´t believe his ears for he was sure he misheard Barton. But looking at the other man and how miserable and hurt he looked he had the feeling that he heard right.

„I am sorry, sir. I know this must be awkward seeing that you are my superior and probably married with four kids and not gay. I never thought they would go so far as creating some fake mission. When we are back in New York, I will be out of your sight!“ 

„No!“ Phil said louder than he had intended to.

Barton was startled by his loud protest. 

„No?“ 

Phil looked at the other agent and noticed a hopeful glint in his eyes.

„No, you don´t have to leave SHIELD because of me. I am honored that you feel that way but“

The hopeful glint dissappeared. Phil knew he was making no sense whatsoever right now but his whole brain was repeating one phrase namely Clint liked him.

He felt like a teenage girl who just learned that her crush liked her back. He knew if he didn´t say the right thing in the next two seconds Clint, now and for always Clint, would go and vanish. The first time he caught them, he was lucky. He didn´t think he would be able to ever find them again. 

Clint made a movement which brought Phil back to the reality.

„No, don´t go! What I want to say is I like you too!“ 

The smile that broke out on the face of the other man let his fear to sound like a teenage girl vanish. 

 

„Is that true?“ Clint asked in disbelief. 

Coulson nodded. 

Clint hold back a very girlish giggle that tried to escape him.

„I am kind of hungry, do want to go somewhere and eat something and talk?“ Phil said looking utterly endearing in Clint´s eyes.

He thought about it for a minute before accepting the invitation. He pointly ignored his own thoughts who told him to drag the other man up to their room and never let him leave.

As he walked beside Phil smiling like an idiot he thought about sending Loki some message telling him that their plan was a sucess but decided against it. They would know soon enough anyways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted to post this yesterday but my best friend got in the way. It is really a fluffy angsty short chapter, at least I think it is and I hope you like it. As I said some chapters ago I won´t focus on the C/C relationship anymore than this. Maybe I will write a fic about what happened in Paris but right now I don´t have time for it. I really want to finish this story before posting anything else.  
> The next chapter will be longer again! I just wrote this today so please don´t judge it to harshly. 
> 
> Thanks for being patient! And for leaving Kudoy, bookmarks, comments and subscribing my fic!!  
> I now have more subscribers and kudos than I have followers on tumblr as my best friend pointed out, so thank you all!


	10. Chapter 10

A lot changed over the next few months. Clint and Coulson, or Phil now, were in a relationship, finally as Natasha groaned. She and Loki went on some missions together without them. 

Loki was happy with being where he was in his life and he knew Clint felt the same. It seemed like they found their place in the world, even though they were with SHIELD for over six years by then. Before it was just another job. A place to stay for a while. 

Now they had someone who would wait for them, would miss them if they would walk away. Loki also knew that Clint wouldn´t be able to part from New York without ever regretting it.

He watched Clint and Natasha bickering over breakfast and how Clint´s face lit up when he noticed Coulson walk up to them. A smile graced his lips as he took a sip from his tea. 

 

It was only fitting that their peace and quiet couldn´t last forever. Rumors were heard everywhere on the SHIELD grounds. Rumors about Captain America being found in the ice, about a new alien artefact and a secret initiative consisting of Stark and other talented men. SHIELD was worse than any schoolyard in terms of gossiping. 

 

SHIELD didn´t have any missions for them, so they stayed at the HQ most of the time. Mostly at Loki´s room for his room was the most comfortable one, at least in Clint´s and Natasha´s mind. 

Phil joined them sometimes and only if Clint complained for hours about him not trying to spent any time with him and his friends. He still didn´t know about the dreams and Clint didn´t feel the need to tell him about it. Even if the last one he had had been slightly different. 

They were, as so often, sitting on Loki´s bed and gossiping about the newest rumors. 

After a while Natasha seemed to sense that he wanted to talk alone with Loki and took her leave telling them that she wanted to see how the newest baby agents were holding up. Smiling she walked out of the room. 

„ I had this dream of you and some box which glowed blue. You seemed a little keen on destroying everything, especially Fury“ Clint stated without any hesitation. 

„Oh, was I victorious?“ Loki asked nonchalant.

„It seemed so though everything was a little hazy and blue. It ended far to quickly before I could really see anything, it all was over again. Only you and the box and Fury trying to save it were really clear“ Clint replied. 

Loki focused on him without any sign of amusement. „What do you think it means? The same as the other dreams or something different?“ 

Clint shrugged. „Don´t know but it was strange. It was you but it also wasn´t. Maybe some shape shifter? But it wasn´t like the other dreams, they were not as clear as that one.“ 

„But it was still like a memory?“

„Yeah, it was.“ Both went quiet.

„Did you tell Coulson?“ Loki broke the silence.

„No, why should I? I didn´t even tell him about the others“ 

„That one is different!“ Loki insisted. 

„Not really, it is just a dream“ he countered. 

„Maybe, though I have a bad feeling about this one, Clint!“ 

„Why? Are you planning world domination?“ Clint said not taking anything Loki said serious.

„Yeah right, every night I write in my diary my ideas for world domination! Dear diary, Clint was mean to me, by the way my plan for world domination is near finish , yours Loki“ He mocked Clint.

„No need to be childish. And when was I mean to you?“ 

Loki glared at him.

„So, what do you want to do? Tell Fury and hope he won´t think my visions come true and hunt us down? Or do you want to leave SHIELD for good? Maybe it is time to move on“ 

Loki sighed in annoyance. „Do you ever listen to what other people tell you to do?“ he wanted to know clearly irritated.

Clint shrugged his shoulder shooting him a wide smile. 

„Don´t worry! Nobody´s thinking about leaving SHIELD or your precious boyfriend!“ Loki said smiling. 

„Hey, who said something about leaving Phil behind“ Clint asked outraged. Loki shot him a look indicating that he thought Phil would never leave SHIELD without a fight. „My dear friend, even if we had to drag him out of here kicking and screaming, we wouldn´t leave him behind. Nat would come along as well, helping us tranquilizing him“ Clint said confidently. Loki only shook his head smiling slightly.

 

Shortly after their discussion Loki was sent to some secret base to keep watch on the artefact whereas Clint stayed back at New York and Natasha was sent to India. 

At the base he met Dr Selvig again. The man hadn´t changed much since New Mexico. Loki politely inquired after Dr. Foster and her assistance Lewis but Dr Selvig didn´t seem to be able to focus enough to answer him. Loki shrugged it of as some kind of quirk of the good doctor.

His days were mostly filled with watching a room where the doctor was working on some kind of box. He had a strange feeling about it but the experts were not ruling the box as something dangerous. It was the opposite, apparently the box could be used as a energy source. 

 

Clint called from New York telling him that he met Captain America. Another rumor was proven true and Clint now wondered if the whole secret initiative was true too. Loki didn´t voice his opinion regarding it. Before ending his call he told him that he was coming to the base acting as Fury´s bodyguard earning himself a laugh from Loki.

Late in the evening Fury arrived at Project Pegasus, dragging Clint behind him. Loki hid his smile when he saw the miserable look on his friend´s face. 

He led Fury to Dr Selvig where they were watching as Dr Selvig operated on the box or the tesseract as he called it when something went wrong. Selvig pressed some button which caused a reaction from the artefact which he clearly didn´t see coming. 

The tesseract began to glow in a blue light. Clint stepped in front of Fury whereas Loki took a step towards Selvig when suddenly a person appeared in the room. Everyone seemed baffled for a moment until Fury told the man to put down his weapon. 

The man gave them a small smile before attacking them. Agents filled the room shooting at the man who was apparently immune to their effects killing a few agents on his way to them. 

Clint tried sneaking up on the unknown man from behind whereas Loki dodged his attack on the scientists and bought them time to excape. 

Out of the corner of his eye he could see other agents getting close to the man too attacking until suddenly the unknow man pointed his weapon, a spear, at their chest and the agent who was touched by it, seemed to be in a daze and to follow the man´s orders attacking his fellow agents. 

Clint was getting pretty close to the attacker when the man suddenly turned around looking at Clint who stood still. Loki ran up to them just in time to push Clint out of the way when the man took his spear and pointed it against Loki´s chest. 

 

He held his breath for a moment and let out a surprised gasp when nothing happened. The other man looked just as confused. Loki used this to his adavantage. He was about to attack when the man dissappeared in front of his eyes. 

Another second of confusion until the man appeared in front of Fury taking away the artefact with a smirk on his face. The agent under his spell disappeared with him. 

„The whole base is on lockdown, nobody gets in or out!“ Fury ordered furiously. „ Get Agent Odinson in isolation!“ 

Some agents walked up to Loki requesting him to follow them. Loki looked at Clint for a moment before following them without any resistance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter so soon because I felt slightly bad about the last rather short chapter yesterday, although this one has only 300 words more, and I have no idea when I will be able to update but probably not before sunday, maybe monday. Life gets in the way right now with family being family and I don´t get any writing done. Thankfully most of my story is alreay written or you would have to wait for months for me to finish it!  
> This chapter was shorter than the others too but that´s because it would have been too long if I didn´t split it. The next one will be longer.  
> As for the chapter, finally the plot of the Avengers movie is here! Slightly different but still recognisable, I hope. I don´t think I have anything else to say to the chapter, a lot happened but at the same time nothing unexpected. 
> 
> And as always Thank you for your Kudos, bookmarks and subscribing my fic!


	11. Chapter 11

The isolation cell was very frugal, it didn´t even have a chair. And every wall was white. `No wonder their captives hated it in there` Loki thought creating himself a couch laying down on it. 

It took some time before the door opened and an agent and a woman in a white coat stepped in. The woman looked nearly too young to be working with SHIELD already. Loki didn´t bother acknowledging them by getting up. He only watched them as the looked slightly scared at him.

„Agent, We need to examine you and draw some blood for some workout! Please stand up for the procedure!“ The woman said to him in a cool voice, hiding her tension pretty good. 

„No, Ma´am!“ Loki replied, not looking at them.

„It´s a direct order from Director Fury, agent!“ the agent beside the woman said. 

„I don´t care if it was an order from Fury, for all I know the fucking Queen could want blood from me, the answer will always be the same! No.“ he said in a bored voice.

The agent stepped closer to him. 

„If I were you, I would step back!“ Loki warned him and shook his head when the agent didn´t listen.

Before the man could even touch him Loki had moved from the couch behind the man with a knife against his throat. 

„I gave you are fair warning!“ He whispered into the agents ear ignoring the woman´s hoffified shriek. The man in his arms froze and nodded. „Leave, now!“ he let go of the agent and laid down on the couch again. 

The woman hurried to the door, indicating for whoever was watching them to open it while the man slowly walked away. Loki smirked slightly as they left the room.

 

Clint was irritated for nobody gave him any answers. After the whole fiasco with the intruder they seperated him from Loki bringing the other away to who knows where. 

„Isolation“ as Fury had called it.

He himself was brought to Medical where they did some tests on him on the strict order to not let him leave. Two agents were guarding him in the room with another two standing in front of the door. He could try to escape through the vents but to do that he had to disable them without anyone´s notice. 

It was managable but it would lead to a ton of paperwork. Besides he was pretty sure Fury wouldn´t hurt one of his best assets and risk the anger of him or Natasha. Phil would be on their side too, he was sure of that. 

He laid down on the bed trying to focus his mind on Loki and their connection. Though it seemed that he was unable to getthrough to Loki for he didn´t answer. Clint was a little stressed out about that. On the other hand there could be a ton of reasons why it didn´t work. Only not a single one came to his mind at that moment.

He heard a commotion outside. A woman was seemingly near a hysteric breakdown from what he could tell judging by the noise. He could never understand why Medical did have staff that didn´t go through training. It was a risk in his eyes.

A doctor came in, giving him a strange look, ordered him to stand up and drew some blood from him before walking out again. The next time the door opened two agents walked in.

„Four guards now, huh?“ he said out aloud, not expecting an answer. 

 

Clint began walking up and down and thought about what happened in the lab when the intruder appeared. Everything went to shit, that much was clear. The man was unaffected by any kind of weapon and did some mind mojo on one of the agents. Clint himself nearly got touched by that strange spear if it weren´t for Loki who pushed him aside. 

Did Loki get touched though?

Clint wasn´t sure but even if he was, he didn´t run after the intruder like a lovesick puppy as the other agent did. Fury was overreacting. Loki was his normal self not some robot who would do anything the man ordered. 

All the sudden he got a little dizzy before everything went black. 

For a second at least. Then he was back at the lab but everything was wrong for the intruder was Loki. Loki was attacking SHIELD, killing some agents in the process. He touched Clint with his spear and everything got hazy, like a blue fog was tainting his mind. He saw himself following Loki´s orders, killing innocents and attacking the hellicarrier, their headquarters. 

It was like he didn´t have a mind of his own. Natasha appeared and they fought until she hit him square on his head and he woke up. 

He was back at his bed in Medical with four concerned looking agents hovering at the door and a doctor at his side who took his pulse. 

„What happened?“ Clint asked still in a daze.

„You fainted it seems. Low bloodsugar I guess. Eat something!“ the doctor ordered. 

He nodded not entirely convinced that this was the reason. He went longer without food without ever fainting. That was different.

„How long was I out?“ he inquired as the woman in white was walking towards the door. 

„A few hours, I guess!“ she replied not looking at him walking outside.

He looked at the agents for any form of confirmation but they didn´t look his way either. 

 

After the visit of the young woman and the agent, Loki stayed on his own for hours before the door to his isolation cell opened once again.

He opened his eyes curious about who was in the room with him. 

Two agents he once had a mission with, stepped into the room. Both stayed clear of him and were about to put some package on the floor when Loki put a table in front of them. The agents took a step back in surprise. 

He didn´t mind it. Most agents didn´t like it when he created things out of thin air. 

One of them put the package on it. They left the room without saying a single word to him. 

He got up from his couch and walked to the table. The package contained clothes. 

White clothes.

Those kind of clothes given to people in hospitals or worse, labs.

For a moment pure horror went through his body and mind. For all he knew Fury was about to send him to some research lab, examaning every part of his body. It was like his worst nightmare would becoming true. SHIELD maybe didn´t know all of his strength but it knew that he was not immune to any tranquilizer they knew of. He was human, officially at least. 

 

He hoped his features didn´t betray his true emotions as he began to build a new illusion around him. His prison cell as it was with him in it. Everything as it was before the package.

He knew they wouldn´t notice a thing on their surveillance feature as he began planing his escape. 

The illusion was mainly to let them stay in the dark about his movements in the cell. Being invisible was his great advantage. 

He watched the door for any indication that somebody was about to enter his room. The moment somebody would, it would be his escape. 

Three easy steps. First get out of the room, second get Clint and third get as far away from SHIELD as possibly. 

That would mean to leave Natasha and Coulson behind. Maybe they would come look for them and they would be able to explain why they left.  
They would understand too.

 

His train of thoughts stopped when he noticed a small movement from the door. He lifted the illusion surround the door for the surveillance.

It opened and Sitwell walked in followed by some agents. 

It wasn´t that he didn´t like the man but the man had a slight problem with Loki it seemed. Clint thought that he was scared of him and showed it by being an alpha male around him. 

Three of the agents stayed by the door guarding it. Loki smirked at that. As if they were able to stop him. He watched Sitwell looking at the illusion of him laying on the couch.

„I know that isn´t you!“ Sitwell said still looking at it. The other agents looked a little antsy at that claim.

„Are you sure?“ his illusion asked with a raised eyebrow. 

„Odinson, don´t take me for a fool!“ Sitwell exclaimed. Loki smiled slightly but didn´t lift the illusion.

„Of course not, Sir!“ his drawled. 

Sitwell glared at that. He was about to say something when the door opened again and Coulson with Natasha in tow walked in. Loki knew by the way both of them didn´t look at his illusion for a second that they knew he wasn´t really there. 

„Agent Sitwell, I will handle it from here!“ Coulson´s tone didn´t let any room for protest.

The other agent nodded and left the room with his goons.

„Loki, you can stop now!“ Natasha said in a soothing voice Loki only heard once before and the memory of it wasn´t a good one.

„Where is Clint?“ his illusion still spoke for him while he watched both of them carefully. 

„Medical!“ was Coulson´s reply.

Clint wasn´t hurt judging by the way Coulson looked. If something would be wrong Coulson would look worse to wear. Natasha would too. 

Still the illusion stayed. 

„Or at least that was his last known location, my guess is that he is somewhere in the vents!“ Natasha went on. 

On cue Clint dropped from the vents right in front of Coulson conveniently outside his illusion. Coulson didn´t even move a muscle as if he was waiting for his asset to drop down anytime from anywhere. 

 

„Hey there“ Clint greeted all of them cheerily. „I think somebody was asking for me?“ he asked innocently. 

He frowned slightly at the picture in front of him. Loki was sitting on the floor leaning against the wall while his illusion was going on. He looked slightly panicked but relaxed a little at the sight of Clint giving him a small smile. 

„Take down the illusion! It is slightly creepy to talk to two versions of you!“ he told Loki. 

Both versions smirked at him. „Oh really? And here I was thinking you would never tire of my looks!“ both stated sarcastically.

With a wide smile Clint shook his head. „Looks like you are wrong!“

Loki, the real one, stood up and walked towards them changing his appearance slightly but only so much that they wouldn´t notice his stressed state. Clint rolled his eyes at that hoping that Loki would show them his vulnerability for once. His illusion dropped. 

The other two people in the room gave him a check over looking for any kind of change on him.

Looking around the room Clint noticed a package sitting at the far end of the room. He was about to walk up to it when Loki grabbed his wrist.

„It´s nothing!“ he told Clint who looked at him for a moment before turning back to their little group.

„Can we go now“ Loki wanted to know looking at Phil who gave them a small nod. Natasha graced him with a smile walking next to him out of the door with Phil behind them. 

 

Clint hurried quickly to the package taking a glimpse at it. Shocked he let it fall on the floor walking out of the room hurrying after the others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of angst! And a little betrayal! Next chapter will be the first meeting of the Avengers, sans Thor! The villain appeared already in the last chapter and I think most of you already know who it is, so no surprises in the next chapter, or two.  
> My story will be soon finished, I think maybe four or five more chapters. 
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and you like the whole story so far! I would love to hear some comment from any of my dear readers! Kudos, Bookmarks and Subscriptions are welcomed too!


	12. Chapter 12

They didn´t stay at the base but went back to New York immediatly. It seemed that Fury was already there and requested their presence. 

Loki went quiet for a moment and wondered if Fury knew that he was kept in isolation but didn´t share his questions with the others. Coulson debriefed them during the flight to New York explaining some stuff about the tesseract and the avenger´s initiative which apparently consisted of Iron Man, Captain America and Dr Banner, a man who had an accident and now turned into literally a green rage monster.

It seemed that Fury thought that the three of them should join them in the fight against the intruder.

Clint was excited about that whereas Natasha groaned at the thought of working with Stark. Coulson didn´t have time to give them any details as they already reached the hellicarrier. 

 

They walked to Fury´s office where they were met with said team and Fury and Hill. Stark was speaking about something when they entered the room. Stark stopped talking and turned to Coulson. 

„Agent Agent, nice seeing you again! And look you brought company! Miss Romanoff, lovely to see you again“ Stark said excited. 

Clint nudged Loki at the comment about Natasha, hiding very poorly his smile at it.

„And who are those striking men?“ Stark inquired looking at them. 

„Agents Barton and Odinson, Stark! They will join your team along with Agent Romanoff!“ Coulson said patiently. 

He and Clint just nodded in greeting. Stark shot them a questioning look. „What do they contribute to our little group? I mean, I have seen the russian spy in action but the other two could be some for no good agents“ 

Before Clint or Loki could react to the insult Coulson spoke again. „That is for me to know and for you to wonder, Stark“ he noted in a monotone voice, motioning for all of them to sit down. 

 

„We are all here because of an attack from some unknown man who stole an artefact of great importance to the US. He is very dangerous and we don´t know why he stole the artefact. We need you to work together on getting the tesseract back and to capture it´s thief!“ Hill began debriefing them about the specifics of the tesseract and their mission. 

Loki listened only halfeartedly, still wondering about SHIELD´s involvement in his isolation. He knew it was protocol to isolate anyone who would have come this close to some alien object but something was fishy about it. His thoughts were interrupted by Stark and Loki could already see why Natasha was sick of him.

„Your agent over there isn´t listening, Fury. I think you need to train them better“ he stated with a smirk. 

Loki looked at Stark for a moment a little stunned at the comment. Fury only shook his head and gave Stark an one eyed glare motioning at Hill to go on. Loki meanwhile tried to focus on the topic and gave his apologies to Hill. 

„Circus trained monkey!“ Stark muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.

Clint tensed beside him ready to jump Stark. Natasha smiled evilly at Stark whereas Coulson stayed unmoved as always. Loki rolled his eyes at the statement of the older man before he turned away from him. Stark looked slightly confused at that. He felt Stark watching him but he didn´t mind. 

When Hill finally finished her briefing, Fury and Hill left the room. 

 

The two little groups, except for Coulson, watched each other warily until Captain America broke the tension.

„Captain Steve Rogers!“ He greeted them holding his hand out to them. 

Clint took it and introduced all of them. Stark still watched Loki whereas Rogers, as he insisted on calling him, looked expectantly at them. Dr Banner seemed to be more on the shy side which suited just well with Loki. 

 

„Circus monkey doesn´t speak to us?“ he mocked him. 

This time Clint reacted faster than Loki anticipated. „Watch it Stark!“ he told him in a sharp tone.

Stark shot him a smile. „Or what?“ 

Before Clint could answer Loki created an illusion of himself standing behind Stark holding a knife to the older man´s throat. Stark let out a startled cry whereas Banner watched them fascinated and Rogers looked at Coulson who merely looked bored at the display of Loki´s trick. Loki watched with a smile as Stark paled at the feeling of the knife against his throat. The version of himself leaned closer to Stark.

„I think you can imagine now why I am on the team, Stark!“ he whispered into Stark´s ear. 

He pulled the knife away from Stark´s throat and rammed it right in front of him into the table before letting the illusion dissappear.

Wide eyed Stark looked at him. Loki smiled innocently at him.

„You are a mutant!“ he spluttered.

Rogers looked a little confused at the word but focused on Loki. Banner moved forward trying to touch the knife before Natasha shot him a look.

„Don´t!“ she said warning him. Clint smiled mischievously at all of them grabbing the knife from the table. Loki got up smiling at all of them before he left the room. 

 

Clint played with the knife Loki left behind to the amusement of both Natasha and Phil. Phil didn´t show his amusement as open as Natasha did but Clint knew he was amused to. On the inside. 

Their new superheroes team was still a little baffled by Loki´s display. Especially Stark who observed the knife in his hands carefully. 

„Agent Coulson,Sir, I don´t think that display was necessary.“ Rogers stated. 

„Yeah, Agent Agent Capsicle is right! The mutant overstepped a boundary!“ Stark agreed with Rogers.

Natasha glared at him for that. Banner seemed to grow a little uncomfortable with the tension in the room.

„I don´t think it is very kind of you to talk about Agent Odinson as if he was some kind of freak, Tony“ he said in a calm voice.

Stark was somewhat shocked by this and it seemed that some wheels in his head were turning as he looked at Banner. "No, Brucie, my science buddy, you are no"

„Stark, Captain America, I think it is for the best if I would show you to the rooms assigned to you for your stay here at the helicarrier“ Phil interrupted Stark standing up. 

„Sir, I could show them their rooms!“ Natasha offered with a wicked grin. 

Phil declined politely while inviting the others to follow him out of the room. With a last look at the two of them he ordered them to come to his office after dinner. Both nodded. 

The knife was still in his hands as their new found friends left the room. Clint and Natasha got up as well walking in the direction of Loki´s room. 

 

Loki was sitting on his bed absorbed with a book. Natasha took her place next to him on the bed whereas Clint chose the end of it. He leaned against the wall behind the bed and watched both of his friends. Natasha glanced over Loki´s shoulder reading whatever he was reading until Loki closed the book. 

„Did I miss something big?“ he inquired. 

Natasha shook her head. Clint tossed the knife towards Loki.

„Phil wants to see us after dinner!“ he added. 

Natasha and Loki cooed at his use of Coulson´s first name, making up various domestic scenarious to the horror of Clint.

 

Dinner itself was full of gossip mainly revolving around the guests of the helicarrier and the new superheroes team. Apparently someone in R&D denied Stark access to his newest invention while Banner and Rogers were allowed to use it. The older man complained about it during dinner to everyone who was listening, which was most of the junior agents. Most of the senior agents didn´t care for the newcomers.

Clint and Natasha shot them a disdained look until Stark mentioned Loki and his murderous temper which caused some of the junior agents to leave him. 

The man looked a little confused at that until another agent told him to watch what he was saying. Rogers and Banner looked intriqued by that and Clint and Natasha grinned wildly at that comment. 

Loki himself didn´t really care for the uproar in the canteen or the support he got from the other agents.

It was nice knowing that they cared for him but as far as he was concerned he would be able to leave SHIELD without thinking of them. As would Clint apparently. Natasha and he looked like they enjoyed themselves watching the others, whispering about them behind their backs. 

 

They were about to leave when the woman from his cell walked into the canteen followed by some of her colleagues. She was startled at seeing him and paled slightly at it. They created eye contact and Loki could see her fear of him in them. Somehow he was mesmerised by it and the meaning behind it. He knew people were afraid of him, after all his job was to kill somebody most of the time at least, but he never noticed it as openly in other people before.

Natasha touched his shoulder indicating him that they had to leave for the meeting and thus broke the eye contact. 

„Everything alright?“ she inquired walking out of the canteen.

„Yeah, of course“ 

 

Coulson was sitting behind his desk like always filling out some paperwork. Clint took his place on the couch whereas Natasha decided to remain standing and Loki took his seat on a chair in front of the desk. Without looking up from his work he shoved a piece of paper in front of Loki causing Clint to snicker. 

Sighing Loki took a pen and filled it out, describing in great detail his exploit in the conference room.

„Barton and Romanoff, you will go with Stark and Capt. America to Germany!“ he ordered them, still not looking at them. 

With a groan Clint began complaining about Stark and why they needed to go to Germany.

„It is an order, Barton, stop behaving like a moody teenager! Dr Selvig has reason to believe that our unknown will be there in order to get as element needed to stabilise the tesseract.“ Clint still looked like he didn´t want to go but stayed silent. 

„You“ He looked at Loki „will stay with Dr Banner as he tries to find out for what the tesseract could be used“ 

All three nodded and left the office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So finally all the Avengers have had their appearances in the story! The end is near...for Stark´s characterisation I wasn´t really sure how to write him without being a total douchebag and this was the best I could do... he is very ooc I think but I try my best to write him a little more in character...this chapter is once again more a filler introducing the other characters needed for my story...the last one was a little wary of SHIELD, isolation and treatment of Loki, and this one shows a little darker Loki than the chapters before, not everything is black and white anymore or at least I hope I wrote it that way...A little spoiler for the nexts chapters: the next chapter will be the battle in Germany and Loki´s talk with the villain, I hope you know who it is, and a little drama, following that will be a Stars Wars centric chapter (now you have to have a glue who the villain is) and the plan for the rescue of Manhattan and then finally the last chapter the big battle, a dramatic talk and the reason why Loki is on Earth! So three more chapters and I am finished!! 
> 
> And last but not least: Thank you for your support and your kudos, bookmarks, subscription and most of all reading it!!


	13. Chapter 13

The flight to Germany was peaceful for the most part as Clint and Natasha stayed away from the other two for the duration of the flight. Stark, on the other hand, talked most of the time and Rogers seemed to try to keep up with his train of thoughts, though seemed to be utterly confused by it. 

They arrived in time to see as the maniac, as Stark called him, ordered civillians to kneel in front of their new ruler. Rogers and Stark took over pretty fighting the man directly whereas Natasha and Clint took on his new found followers. They didn´t show any mercy. Rogers nor Stark did notice as they were fully focused on the villain.

Suddenly the sky grew darker and darker and thunder was heard. Their enemy shoot a concerned look at the sky, not caring for anything else. Stark moved fast, as Clint noticed getting closer to the man. Cocky as ever he walked up to him ignoring Rogers orders. 

„Scared of a little thunder?“ 

The man glared at him a little mockingly. „No, only getting more excited!“ 

Confused Stark took a step back.

Natasha shot Clint a curious look to which he shrugged in reply. A loud crash made all of them wary. A moment later Thor appeared looking ready to finish their battle. 

Rogers and Stark didn´t seem sure on which side Thor was for they were about to attack him too. Clint stepped between them shooting a grin at Thor who beamed back at him. Rogers was still wary of the newcomer but didn´t say anything as he watched the god attack the intruder. The other man looked more confident at the sight of the god than he had before. Clint didn´t think that that was a good sign.

The battle didn´t take much longer, with Thor´s help they could overwhelm the man in no time and were able to take him as prisoner. Clint worried a little about that. Something told him that the man wanted to be taken in by them. 

 

After the victorious battle Thor walked up to Clint crushing the man in one of his godly hugs, causing Clint to stop his train of thought in order to concentrate on breathing.

„My friend, we meet again!“ After being able to breath freely again Clint took a step away from the blond.

„Thor, still giving bone crushing hugs! Long time no see!“ He joked and introduced Thor to the others who thusly were hugged enthusastically by the god. Not that there was anything he didn´t do enthusastically, Clint mused as he watched Natasha´s discomfort at being hugged.

„Not that I am not pleased to see you again, but why are you here?“

„This man is an enemy of the Allfather Odin. I am here to collect him and bring him back for punishment to my realm“ The others looked confused at the god´s statemant but didn´t say anything. 

 

When the others came back from Germany they had a prisoner with them and a friend Loki didn´t think he would see again. Thor gave him a bone crushing hug and told him about their prisoner and his error thinking Loki was the last one. Fortunately the others didn´t listen to their conversation as they were far too absorbed with their own thoughts. Fury ordered a strict isolation for the strange man, cutting off any chance to talk to their prisoner. 

 

To be honest Loki was never one to listen to any regulations. Normally though Clint would accompany him and people would put the blame on Clint´s bad influence on Loki. He let them believe it. Knowing that it shouldn´t come as a surprise that Loki found himself on the way to the prisoner although Fury as well as Coulson told everyone to keep away from him. 

He just wanted to take a look, speak with the man. He had to know more about their heritage than Thor did and it couldn´t hurt knowing. 

Carefully he created an distraction, causing the agents who guarded the prisoner to leave their post allowing him to slip into the room without much effort. A quick illusion to distract the camera was the last thing he did before stepping in front of the glass room. He had to admit Fury had a liking for the dramatic. 

„I never thought I would see one of us in this realm!“ the man said as he watched every movement Loki did. „You are different though. Fascinating“ the man stepped closer to the glass wall, examing him. He let out a bitter laugh. „If you wonder, we are the last ones. Only you and me left, soon only you. A whole race extinct.“ 

Loki didn´t say anything just watched him warily. He couldn´t see any resemblance between him and the other man. The man was blue skinned and red eyes whereas Loki looked like a human. 

„ Once I was the ruler of an empire. How glorious those days were." the man went on. "Then, Odin of Asguard destroyed us. He slaughtered them, one by one. Killed innocent without any regret. My wife, my child. I thought I never see another one of us and yet, here you are. Help me, free me and come with me. Fight against Asgard and all of its allies to revenge their wrongdoings.“ He proposed to Loki.

Loki shook his head. 

„Why have you come here if not for answers. I can give them to you and more. Help me and I will help you! It´s only a fair trade.“ The man tried to bargain with him.

Loki stepped closer, sizing the man up. „I have no desire to help you or your cause!“ Loki turned around and started to walk away.

„Did nobody ever tell you that you never turn your back to your enemy? There is no cell that could hold me!“ 

Confused Loki turned around only to see the man standing in front of his cell. 

He grinned wickedly and made a bow. „I am Laufey, ruler of all of Jotunheim.“

Warily Loki stared at him waiting for the man to attack. 

„I won´t attack you, don´t worry. You are one of mine and I look after what is mine!“

„I am not yours!“ Loki spat angrily. 

Laufey laughed. „Yes, you are although growing up in this realm, it changed your nature. It made you think you are one of them, but you have to remember these humans“, he spat the word human as if it was poisionos „are weak, fragile. You on the other hand, you are something special. You are superior to those humans, even if you look like one. They need to be ruled by somebody. Look at them, how they destroy each other. Their life in the right hands would be kinder, peacefuller.“ He took a step closer to Loki. „You know they are flawed, helpless on their own. Hateful against everything they can´t explain. Like you. How they treated you, like an animal. You were nothing to them and still you are nothing, just a tool. As long as you walk around freely, not caged in some lab, you will be a danger to them. “ Loki felt lightheaded. Alarm bells went off in his mind warning him that Laufey had entered him memories. „Look at you, tied to them through your loyalty. Your so called friends used you without any regrets, at first as a mercenary now as a supposed agent. Promising you things they will never give you.“ He took a step closer standing right in front of Loki, who didn´t move a muscle. „Do you really think they, he, wouldn´t betray you for his real brother?“ 

Loki looked away breaking the eye contact.

„You are a fool, only a pathetic fool for thinking that he won´t.“ Laufey shook his head. „This realm, that you love so much, it broke you, piece for piece it destroyed who you really were. Look at you, you changed your looks to look more like them! And how did they repay you? They locked you away in some cage, like an animal, not hearing you beg and plead for food or water. Sometimes for days! And why? Because you were a child they didn´t want! A burden! A mouth to feed who didn´t contribute anything.“ He put his hand on Loki´s shoulder. „My own flesh and blood“, Loki froze „treated worse than an animal. My heart wheeps for you! You are worth more than any of them. A prince, ruler of an empire! My son, my blood!“

He moved closer near enough to whisper into Loki´s ear. „You´ve seen it, heard it! What they really think, how afraid they are! They don´t care for you, they fear you! And you enoy it, how they begged for mercy before you slaughtered them!“

Laufey walked away from him, letting everything sink in. „Your friends, what do you think will they believe if they notice that I am gone and you were with me? Do you think they will believe a word you say? After knowing that you aren´t human but the son of their enemy? Doubt, my child, is a wicked seed. It takes over everything and leaves destruction behind. Nobody will believe you, especially after the asguardian told them about our wickedness.“

Some noise was heard from outside. He smiled widely as he turned back to Loki. „Can you hear them? They are coming!“ He let out a triumphant laugh. „I couldn´t have planned it better myself. Fate did me a favour in putting you in front of me, my child. Your sacrifice will be remembered.“ 

Loki closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Laufey looked at him with a manic smile playing his lips. „Let the show begin!“ 

 

Laufey was right, fate herself couldn´t have planned what happened next any better. The remaining members of their secret group plus Coulson stormed into the room. Their weapons were all ready to be fired at any moment the man would convey a danger to them. Though Loki didn´t focus on any of them. He only had eyes for Laufey who looked at all of them smiling widely.

„Lovely to see all of you, again!“ he spoke in an even voice. „Your timing couldn´t be any better. I would love to stay but“ he winked at Loki „my presence will be needed somewhere else. Don´t worry though, my son will answer any questions you might have!“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Loki is Laufey´s son! Yeah that didn´t surprise anybody! For the rest of the chaper what can I say, it showed a litte drama from Loki´s growing up which I won´t mention again, at least not in this fic, maybe, I don´t know yet, I will write some fics in the same universe which will bring this up again.  
> For the battle I am bad at writing battles so just imagine what happened, like get a cartoon box and sit in it and use your imagination! 
> 
> Like I said so many times before, Thank you all for taking your time to read it and then to take some extra time to leave kudos, bookmarks and/or to subscribe it! 
> 
> I´ve mentioned that I have a tumblr account which is not very popular but nontheless it exists! I don´t post my fics there but if you want to take a look, my url is ungetuem-aus-der-hoelle


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay but I have two big exams next week and I am busy freaking out about it!

After Laufey vanished Loki was faced with chaos. All of them spoke at the same time. Argued about what happened and what that meant, seemingly ignoring Loki.

For a moment Loki hoped they wouldn´t focus on the father son part but unfortunately they did and soon the focus shifted onto him. 

Stark, of course it was Stark, was the first one to speak up about it. Silence, for a moment at least. Then, chaos again. Voices speaking all at the same time, defending him and arguing against him. 

He didn´t know how to deal with that. Thor walked closer to him so did Clint, Natasha and Coulson. The other ones stayed behind. 

He needed to think. To get away. Anywhere but here seemed good. Just vanishing. Disappearing from all of it to somewhere safe. Anywhere but here. He locked eyes with Clint. 

He was alone, safe.

 

Clint couldn´t believe his eyes. He was gone. Just vanished. The shocked silence suddenly errupted in a chaos of voices.

He couldn´t hear what they were saying for he was only focused on the empty space in front of him. A hand on his shoulders brought him back to reality. Phil.

„What the hell did just happen?“ he asked the man. 

„Did he ever do that before?“ he inquired. 

Clint shook his head. „No“ he said barely audible. Stark appeared in front of him.

„Birdbrain, where did he vanish to?“ he asked him harshly. „We need to know where he is. For all we know he could be helping his dearest Daddy!“ 

Before Clint even could move Natasha shot forward tackling Stark to the ground.

„Don´t you dare insinuate that he would ever betray us!“ she groweled at him. 

„Hawkeye, Stark is right, we need to find him!“ Rogers chimed from behind him. 

Clint looked at him in disbelief. „Do you really think he would turn on you?“ he questioned them. 

The others, except for Natasha and Phil, looked abashed at him telling him yes without needing to say it out aloud. Clint let out a bitter laugh. Without saying another word he turned his back on them walking away. Natasha and Phil followed him without hesitation.

„Do you know where he is?“ Natasha wanted to know. Clint shook his head. 

„We will find him, Clint!“ Phil reasured him. Not trusting himself to speak Clint nodded.

 

Silence. Nothing but peace and quiet. He looked at the river in front of him. The noise of the cars under him were nonexistent. Somebody sat down beside him but the person stayed silent. Both stared at the river. 

„I owe you five bucks. Nat did tackle Stark“ 

Quiet.

„Should have known from the beginning that I would loose.“

Silence. 

„You should have seen his face. I bet he was never this scared before!“

Peace.

„I think even Phil´s big hero was a little scared“ 

Nothing.

„Still no talking? “ He waited for a moment. „Alright, We could do the whole staying silent until the world ends, which will be sooner judging by this madman running around or we could talk about what happened. You know, the whole creepy blue guy going all Darth Vader on you before disapearing again. The reason you vanished and Stark got tackled to the ground.“ Clint finished his musings. 

Loki looked at him. „Darth Vader?“

„Totally Darth Vader! I mean c´mon. You are like Luke Skywalker and he is your evil father, Darth Vader. It´s like Star Wars! That makes me Han Solo“ 

Loki smiled at that. „That makes Coulson Princess Leia and Natasha Chewbacca“ They looked at each other before bursting in hysterical laughter.

„Okay, so maybe my theory has flaws but it still stands!“ Clint amended. Loki nodded still smiling wide.

„You know what I want to say with it?“ Clint inquired.

„Yeah, that russian sounds like incomprehensible noise to you and you want to see Coulson in a bikini!“ Loki joked.

„No, that even though your father is an evil bastard, he doesn´t controll your fate or life.“ Clint said punching Loki on his shoulder. 

„Does it mean I have to loose a hand, because I kind of like having two of them“ Loki asked innocently while Clint punched him again on his shoulder. „Ow, that hurts“ Loki exclaimed. He got punched again. „What was that for? And stop it now, it´s dangerous! I could loose my balance and Han Solo has to face Darth Vader on his own“ 

This time Clint shoved him, only lightly of course. „Stop it!“

„Will you stop messing up my Star Wars analogy?“ Clint demanded to know. 

„Yeah, I stop!“ Loki said while laughing. Both went silent again. 

„You know it´s kind of strange.“ Clint looked at him attentive „I never thought I would understand how Luke Skywalker felt when it was revealed his father was an evil villain“ Loki finished, laughing again. 

„That was the last one, I promise!“ Loki exclaimed looking at Clint who glared at him.

„My analogies are lost on you“ Clint muttered. 

„Don´t worry, I don´t think I am the only one who doesn´t appreciate your analogies!“ Loki told him smiling embracing him with one arm. 

„Are you okay?“ Clint asked all serious. 

Loki sighed. „Yeah, I think I am. I am sorry about the whole disappearing act. I needed to think. You know some things he said where dead on. The whole anger and hate for humans. It is there. Growing up in the circus was hard. I don´t know what would have happened if you would have died that night. And he is right, killing is in my life one way or another. Before SHIELD I did jobs without caring what my target ever did to deserve it. I was a ruthless killing machine. Now it´s the same, sometimes. I do whatever somebody tells me without ever questioning it. SHIELD is the good guy, I tell myself to dissipate any doubts. What if he is right? What if killing, conquering and enslaving is in my blood?“ Loki looked agonized at Clint.

„Don´t ever think that. It was never your choice to do what we did. I got us into the whole mess. You never wanted to be part of it. And you are not a ruthless killing machine. I know you Loki, I´ve seen you when you had to kill somebody, whether it was for a job or for SHIELD! You never enjoyed it! And for the enslaving part, you lectured me on calling the junior agents minions and making them do stuff for me, believe me, you would make a horrible slavedriver. You ruling the world would probably make it a better world!“ 

Clint told him looking into Loki´s eyes to make sure the other man knew he meant what he said. „Nat and Phil would tell you the same. Besides I would follow you whatever you decide to do. You are my brother, blood doesn´t matter, and I trust you more than anybody else in the world. Don´t tell Phil the last part though!“ 

Loki laughed, clearly touched by the sentiment. „Clint you are a melodramatic fool!“

„Maybe! So what will we do now? We could just walk away, you know that, right?“ 

Loki snorted. „No, we can´t and you know that!“ 

Clint shrugged „Yeah, you are right. That is our chance to play hero after all!“ Clint said smiling.

„How did you find me anyways? I mean I didn´t even know where I was going!“ Loki changed the topic.

„Police scans reported a man sitting atop one of the piers of the Brooklyn Bridge. Not very subtle. Why did you come here?“ Clint wondered looking at the river again.

„It´s quiet and I needed somewhere quiet!“ 

Clint hummed in agreement. „Ready to face the wolves?“

Loki nodded.

„Then let´s climb down!“ Clint proposed.

„I have an better idea!“ Loki pulled Clint close and smirked at him before vanishing with him. 

 

They reappeared in front of Phil and Natasha who both let out a startled shriek both denying it afterwards.

„That´s so cool, but I think I might throw up!“ Clint said as he felt solid ground under his feet. Phil hurried to his side looking at him concerned. 

„Clint, pull yourself together! Be a man!“ Loki said in a no nonsense voice not looking at the man. Clint muttered something under his breath which sounded close to showing Loki exactly what kind of man he was while Natasha hummed something close to „I´ll make a man out of you“ which earned her a glare from Clint.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I like Star Wars and I saw the opportunity and seized it! 
> 
> Thanks for reading it and leaving Kudos, Booksmarks or/and subscribe to it!!


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am soo sorry for the delay but I was, still am, drowning in my studying for university!

By the time they made their way back to HQ chaos broke out. It seemed as if Laufey had already begun with the enslaving and conquering part of his plan. He had invited some friends as well, Loki noticed. 

At HQ the little group walked directly into Fury´s office where coincidentally Stark, Rogers, Thor and Bruce were already present.  
Shocked faces met their appearance.

„There you are! Just in time to see daddy dearest in action it seems!“ Stark mocked him. 

Clint looked as if he was about to defent his honor of Loki to his utter amusement.

„I am no damsel in distress, my friend“ he said as he walked by his knight in shining amour. 

Fury looked annoyed at them. Shaking his head he focused on Loki.

„You are here either to surrender to us or to help us fight against the madman who wants to make New York his bitch! And I hope for your own sanity that it is a good plan!“ Fury barked at him. 

Loki smiled sweetly at the one eyed man. „He wants an heir, let him have his heir!“ he simply replied.

„What do you mean?“ 

„We will bait him, Stark“ Clint snapped at the older man.

„We know where he is, namely Stark Tower and we know what he wants, me. All we have to do is go and give it to him. After he sees me he won´t notice Nat and Dr Selvig turning off the powersupply for the tesseract. With cutting it off we will close the portal and this army of his won´t be able to get to us anymore!“ 

The others didn´t really looked as if they trusted this slightly suicidal plan of his, but he didn´t mind. All he wanted was to make sure that Laufey would end up where he belonged to. Forgotten in a prison cell on Asguard and unable to get into Loki´s mind anymore. He pushed this thought far away from his mind as he began explaining their little plan in more detail.

 

Loki stood in the middle of Stark´s private rooms in the Stark Tower. Warily he watched his surroundings.Outside the others were fighting of the Chitauri, as Thor called them, as fast as possible. The idea of Laufey being in the tower was the seemingly logical explaination of Bruce and Stark. They figured that the Tesseract needed some kind of power supply and the tower was the most powerful thing in the city. With the tesseract cut of from his power source they hoped to stop the Chitauri from attacking them and closing the worm hole. 

To be honest, Loki played the bait so Laufey was focused somewhere else but the battle. It was easy enough to get into the tower. Most of the workers were able to leave before any harm was done to it. Laufey also didn´t seem to have put up any guards guarding it. 

Loki hoped that Laufey´s powers weren´t the same as his. Their plan was mostly built upon the surprise effect, if they were honest with themselves. If Laufey knew exactly what Loki was able to do, it would ruin most of it. 

 

„The prodgical son has returned“ Laufey commented sarcastically as he walked into the room. „Have you come to fight me or to join me?“

Loki watched him carefully as the man walked through the room towards the balcony. 

„Your friends are fighting a loosing battle! The army of the Chitauri is endless. Millions of millions of Chitauri are waiting on the other side of the portal to get their chance to fight!“ Laufey´s cold eyes were filled with glee as he watched the Chitauri roam through the city. He smiled at that and turned to face Loki.

„This realm will be conquered by me! But, in my endless good will, I will offer you, once again, to join my forces and be by my side ruling them and others!“ His eyes focused on Loki trying to read him. 

„You were right about these humans! They are weak, small minded, fragile and everything else you think of them.“ Loki walked up to Laufey. „But one thing you need to understand about them“ Laufey looked at him waiting for Loki to go on. A cruel smile played Loki´s lips. „They will fight until their death for what they think is right!“ 

Laufey laughed at that. „Intimitading me with that doesn´t work“ 

„I wasn´t trying to do that“

Laufey took a good look at him. „Why are you here then?“

Loki shrugged. „Maybe to see what your side can offer me, never heard of the saying the world is ruled by money. Although power would seem more fitting in our little concept“ Loki said walking past Laufey looking out of the window down to the streets where Rogers was fighting a loosing battle it seemed.

„What brought on the sudden change of mind?“ Laufey inquired as he watched Loki´s back. 

Loki didn´t turn around but stayed focused on the battle at the streets. „Why should I stay by the side of those who were against me from the beginning. You were right, this society has no place for me, so I guess it´s time I make myself some place!“ 

Laufey was silent for a moment. „How do I know this isn´t some kind of trick?“ 

Loki turned around coming face to face with the other man. „So little trust in your own flesh and blood? I should be hurt by it“

A manic laughter was his answer. „Dear son, you have to learn to never trust anybody, no matter if they are of your blood or not!“ Loki looked at him suspiciously. 

With a small movement of his spear, a familiar person appeared in front of them.

„Don´t you recognise him?“ Laufey asked as he walked over to the person kneeling in front of them. „I believe he is a friend of yours!“ he sneered at the man in front of him. „Tyler was it, right?“ 

Loki hoped his features didn´t betray him as he watched in horror the man kneeling on the floor. 

„To say he is a friend is a bit far fetched“ he said walking up to them. He saw the hurt and betrayed look which appeared on Tyler´s face. „He is far too unimportant and incapable in the field. To be honest he was more of a burden in the field. No wonder nobody protested when I shipped him away to do some dull office work, far more fitting for someone like him!“ He hoped the other man believed him. 

 

Their plan wouldn´t work if he had any doubts. Laufey showed him a gruel smile and walked in front of Loki.

„I see you can talk the talk but will you walk the walk?“ he leaned closer to Loki. „Show me your loyalty!“ he whispered into Loki´s ear. 

Loki nodded not saying anything. 

 

He walked up to the kneeling agent who was apparently in shock by what he had heard. Thankfully he was gagged and not able to say anything. 

In theory Loki could do it. He had killed men for lesser reasons as the death of that agent meant the lives of millions. He killed men who he knew without a second of hesitation as long as someone paid the right price. He could kill him without him even knowing what happened. Fast and painless. A happy illusion was all he needed. Though at the moment he doubted that Laufey would let him soothe the fear of his victim. The madman wanted terror and fear to reign. A painless death was against his agenda. 

Tyler looked at him in disbelief not wanting to accept that his far too short life was about to be ended by the man who once saved it. Laufey watched every movement he made. 

Loki created a knife, still the weapon of his choice, and rammed it into the stomach of the bound agent who let out a small shocked gasp and fell into his arms. Loki didn´t need to turn around to know that Laufey was smiling. He did as he was told, like he always did. 

 

Clint fought another Chitauri as he watched how the stream of new ones seemed neverending. He hoped that the others were sucessful as well. He was grateful for Thor who was immensely helpful killing them. Nat and the doctor were still not back and he didn´t hear any news about Loki. 

Phil was somewhere near the HQ in some van observing the battle from a save distance only present because of his sporadic orders through the comm. Clint was about to shoot another Chitauri when Phil ordered their prompt retreat. He looked for any of the others who seemed as confused as he was. 

 

„They sent an A-bomb to Manhattan to end it all!“ Stark said through the comm sounding like he didn´t believe it himself. 

 

„You are truely one of us!“ Laufey said proudly to him looking at the corpse in front of Loki´s feet. 

Loki didn´t hear it. All he heard was Stark´s voice telling him that the WSC had decided to kill thousands, infecting millions and making the soil they were standing on inhabitable for years. All for the greater good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for your kudos, bookmarks and subscribtions!


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the delay!

Loki tensed at the comment. The knife was heavy in his hands, blood slowly dripping from it. He felt a hand on his shoulder. 

„We have to do something, we can´t just let them drop the bomb!“ a voice said through the comm.

The touch brought him back to the present. Disgusted he took a step away from his biological father. Laufey looked surprised but didn´t move at all. Not hesitating Loki moved fast using all the strength he had in him to attack at last. 

It was a short struggle. Loki didn´t mind. He overpowered the other man and hoped that the others had any kind of plan to stop the bomb. He fought without thinking and was a little surprised how easy it was to overpower the other man.

A swift movement and the spear Laufey used to defend himself, was hurled across the room with Laufey unable to get to it. 

 

Laufey was defeated and he knew it. Loki could see it in his eyes as he stood in front of him, defenceless and overpowered. 

He let out a relieved sigh as he heard that Stark had been able to stop the bomb saving all of them. 

 

The battle was victorious as Thor boomed clasping Loki on the back, grinning widely. Loki tried his best to keep the pain which soured through his body hidden and smiled back. Clint was still running around looking for his arrows trying to blend out Stark´s voice as said man talked about the advantages of a better more modern weapon. Loki couldn´t see Natasha at the moment but he was sure that she was safe and sound. He didn´t see Coulson but he had to be around somewhere too, probably with Pepper, consoling her. 

 

He had no idea why he agreed to go for Shwarma with Stark and the rest of the team for one he had no idea what shwarma was and for another he was not sure if he wanted to know. 

The shop looked like it just survived a battle, Loki thought and bit into his shwarma. He grimaced at the taste of it and put it down again. The others didn´t seem like enjoying it either although Loki couldn´t tell if it was because of the food or the exhaustion. They didn´t talk only sat together in silence. 

„I think we should all move in together!“ Stark broke the silence. At their horrified expressions he went on. „I mean, look at us, we are heroes! We saved the greatest city in the world! And it would save us all a lot of trouble leaving in the same building if some other villain decided to attack us. We wouldn´t have to look for each other again, would save a lot of time. Just saying!“ They only looked at him in disbelief.

„Stark, do you really want to live with former assassins now spies in the same building and Natasha?“ Clint inquired.

Stark gulped looking at Rogers for help. Rogers shook his head.

„Alright, then it will be just the two of us, my science buddy!“ He said clasping Bruce in his shoulder who didn´t look happy at all. 

„About that“ He began.

„Before you say another word let me tell you about your own lab with all the scientific stuff you could dream of“ Bruce looked intriqued. „Maybe I can persuade Pepper into letting us build our own particle accelerator. It will be better than the one in Switzerland“

„Tony I don´t think we need“ 

„Hush Brucie, for you only the best“ 

 

Clint chuckled slightly as he listened to Bruce trying to discourage Stark from trying to create a black hole. 

It still seemed kind of surreal. They just had fought an alien invasion and walked out alive and well. They had loses of course but they were insignifant compared to the bigger picture. 

 

Loki had soon enough of socialising with the others and got up leaving the shop. He took a deep breath clearing his mind, trying to make his mind up where to go now. Back to SHIELD or somewhere else. Someone followed him he noticed as he heard the tell tale sound of a door closing. He hoped for it to be Clint or Nat but once again he was disappointed.

„I saw the footage from the Tower. You killed the man! Without hesitation!“ Stark said seemingly waiting for Loki to deny it.

Loki looked at him „I did! Will this be a problem?“ 

„The agent, I have seen him around SHIELD, defending you. He was your friend, wasn´t he? How could you just kill him?“

„Did you follow me to question my moral code or did you have another reason?“ he asked Stark instead of replying.

„I wonder if you even have a moral code! Maybe you have to be human to feel loyalty!“ Stark spat.

Loki let out a humorless laugh. „I don´t think that a man, who is propably responsible for far more deaths than me, can talk about moral! At least I know who I killed and the reason why I did it. It may not always been a good reason but none of them were without one. And for Taylor, he knew what he signed up for when he started working with SHIELD.“ Loki told Stark looking him in the the eyes.

„I don´t think he knew that he was replaceable in your eyes!“

Loki took a step towards Stark. „You give the boy far too much credit. It didn´t matter who it was. In the end Laufey needed to think he could trust me!“ Stark shook his head. 

„That´s fucked up and you know it! You can´t just kill people for the bigger picture!“ 

Loki sighed in experation. „Stark, what do you want from me? That I tell you that I will loose sleep over the death of Taylor? That I wouldn´t do it again? Alright, if it helps you sleep I will tell you that but if you want the truth I won´t loose any sleep thinking about it. In the end, no matter what, the boy will be dead and we will have saved the city and the world will worship us as the heroes they want us to be!“ He shot a last look at Stark before walking away not waiting for the other man´s reply.

 

He walked into his room at HQ and noticed how unfamiliar his room looked to him. Everything was neatly standing side by side on the shelves. His bed was made. The desk was clean of any unnecessary stuff and his copies of the files from his last missions lay orderly atop of it. 

And all he could think about was how caged he felt at this moment. He wanted to tear the place apart leaving nothing only chaos behind. But then he thought of Clint how he would surely think the worst if he ever came looking for him finding his room in pieces. 

Dismissing it, he walked towards the wardrobe intenting to take at least his stuff with him. Loki reached for the bag and turned back to the room looking for the stuff worth taking with him. He couldn´t see anything that was worth the weight he would have to carry. 

In the end everything stayed where it was, not one piece out of place. Nothing giving away that he was even there in the first place.

Not looking back he left the room.

 

Clint watched as Fury and Phil talked politics with Thor while Nat stood beside him watching Laufey with a wary glare. Stark and Banner were seemingly discussing the theoretics behind the Bifröst. Rogers looked tired and nothing like the soldier Clint had him imagined all these years. The only person missing their little group outing was Loki. 

Neither he or Nat had seen Loki since their swarma experience the day before. He wasn´t at the HQ nor at the bridge again. But Clint was sure Loki hadn´t just left as everything he owned was still in his room at the HQ. He checked their get away bags as well only to be sure. 

 

Thor went on to Stark and Banner, hugging them goodbye. Rogers was next. He could feel how Nat got a little angsty knowing that the god would hug her against her will. Clint smiled broadly at the thought. Nat shot a scowl at him. 

Nat tried to keep Thor from touching her but the blond looked heart broken at the mere thought of not getting a good bye hug from her that her ice cold russian heart seemed to crack and a short hug was exchanged. 

 

„Friend Clint, I will tell my friends great stories of our last battle and your bravery! I am sure they will compose ballads in your honour.“ 

„That is not necessary Thor!“ Clint told him a little freaked out at the thought of strangers singing about him.

„If you feel that way, I will keep them from writing new ballads.“ 

„New ones?“ Nat inquired beside him. Thor´s features lit up at the question. 

„Aye, the ballad of the great archer Eye of the Hawk. It is full of his heroic deeds. All the children of Asguard know it by heart. Don´t worry your brother in arms has songs sung about him as well. You both and your heroic deeds are known all over Asquard.“ Thor boomed happily whereas Clint looked a little pale.

A wicked smile crossed Natasha´s features and Clint knew what the next words out of her mouth would be.

„Alright, time for hugging!“ he hurried to say hugging the god quickly before poiting towards Banner who was still deep in discussion with Stark. „Thor, buddy, did you hug Hulk already?“ Confusion clouded the god´s features. „You wouldn´t want the Hulk feel left out, would you now?“

Nat looked at him as if he had grown another head but didn´t say something. Thor nodded and left in direction of the two scientists. Both looked amused at a slightly desperate Banner who tried to make the norse god understand that the Hulk wouldn´t feel left out whereas Stark couldn´t stop laughing it seemed. 

 

„It is strange that Loki didn´t show up to tell Thor goodbye!“ Nat commented beside him. Clint shrugged.

„The last time we said our goodbyes Loki learned that he was an archenemy of Asquard. Maybe he thought this time Thor would tell him that he had got to give birth to a eightlegged horse in order to live a happy life!“ 

„That is disgusting!“ Loki said from behind them. „I didn´t want to stand here like a fool until Laufey finally left this place for good.“ 

Clint was about to say something when Thor caught sight of Loki and hurried towards him.

„Friend Loki, you came at last to say your goodbyes!“ Thor exclaimed cheerfully. Loki nodded. Thor grinned happily. „Once again, my friend, I offer you to come with me and learn more about your heritage! Will you come with me this time?“

Clint was about to answer for him when Loki took a step towards Thor. 

„I think I will!“ Thor´s grin got even wider whereas Clint and Nat looked equally confused. „Don´t worry, you two. I will come back! I think it is time for a little vacation and Thor assured me that the songs on Asquard alone are worth a travel!“ He told them good naturedly.

Loki focused on Clint who looked as if he wanted to protest. „Look, I will come back, I promise! Maybe not next week or next month, hell maybe I won´t be back until a year has gone by or maybe I will be back tomorrow after being chased by a mob of angry Asguardians who want me dead! Who knows? But I want to go, I need to go!“ he locked eyes with him trying to make sure Clint understood him.

Clint nodded. „ Don´t worry about me. I will play hero while you go and explore yourself. Don´t you dare to come back without a souvenir!“ he told Loki as he hugged him goodbye.

„I wouldn´t dream of it!“ Loki replied laughing. 

Nat pulled him into a hug as well and whispered something in russian before letting go of him again. 

 

Coulson and Fury stayed where they were watching them with curious eyes. Clint knew Phil knew that Loki would go before Loki knew it himself. 

 

Stark, Banner and Rogers seemed confused but stayed silent as Loki walked beside Thor towards their prisoner. 

 

Loki looked back at Clint for a last time with a smile playing his lips. In a quick movement he threw an apple at Clint who caught it easily. 

„So you don´t forget me!“ he yelled as he watched the other man catch the apple. 

Clint laughed a little shaking his head. „Never!“ He yelled back. 

 

The last thing he saw and heard of Loki and Thor was the disbelieving face of Thor as he saw the apple before both vanished.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said I am bad at battle scenes of any kind so I chose to write it short and leave all the fighting up to your imagination!  
> I am not sure about trigger warning stuff because I killed a man in my fic, not in real life, and maybe it could be seen as a trigger but I am not sure about it. So I hope nobody felt violated or decieved in any kind by me not giving a warning about it! But if you do write me a comment and I will change it.  
> The ending of my fic is pretty open but maybe I will write some kind of sequel but right now I am far to busy with unversity....so I don´t know, mybe during the holidays again or if I have more sleepless nights!  
> But just so you know, everybody is pretty happy at the end and nobody dies!
> 
> And I am pretty torn about the ending because I sperated them and I feel like the ending is a little of a cliffhanger which I really didn´t intend to write. The apple thing will be explained in the next chapter for those who know norse mythology and can put 1 and 1 together. As I said I have written about 20 pages of something similar to a sequel but not really and I have no idea when I will be able to finish writing it or post it. 
> 
> Reading over the whole story again and knowing many of read it and liked, is kind of amazing because of you I finished it and had so many ideas for sequels and other stories. But sadly, I am really busy at the moment, for I need t study and I moved out of my flat and my family is pretty chaotic at the moment.


	17. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That´s the end! Thank you so much for your support!! Please take a look at my end note!

The Allmother watched as the chaos and destruction her son caused on Midguard claimed its next victim.

Saddened by the decision of the brave archer she left the halls of Heimdall in the direction of her rooms. Before entering them, she decided to visit her son against the will of her husband.

Without being seen by anybody she walked down the stairs leading to the prisoners of Asguard. The sight of her son caused her unspeakable pain. Broken in despair and closer to madness than to sanity he sat looking forlornly at the illusions he created. 

With a broken heart she climbed the stairs back to her room without speaking to him. He would never know that she came for him, that she had seen him like that. Arriving at her room she locked the door hoping for nobody to disturb her thoughts as she looked out of her window to the tower of Heimdell. Sorrow and grief overwhelmed her at the sight of it. 

 

After a while a knock disturbed her thoughts. Frigga allowed the intruder entrance, surprised at the sight in front of her. 

„My fair Lady Frigga, what seems to sadden your heart and mind?“ 

Sadly smiling Frigga got up from her place and walked over to the intruder. „Lady Idunn, you know well why my heart and mind is shadowed by grief for my son has given in to despair and darkness. He chose a dark path and left me helpless watching him fall.“ She looked the other woman in the eyes. „How I wish that fate had urged him to take a different path as the one he chose to walk.“ 

Idunn stepped closer with pity and understanding in her eyes. „My queen, I am still in your son´s debt for he saved me from a terrible fate. Let me repay the debt!“ She bowed deeply in front of Frigga.

„If you are able to help us, I will never forget your deed and I will be in your debt forever!“

Idunn smiled slightly. „I must warn you though, my way might not be like you wished for it to be!“ She said quietly.

Confused Frigga looked at her. Before she could ask a question both women dissappeared from the room.

 

They found themselves on the battlefield Odin slayed many years ago the Frost Giants. But instead of finding it deserted they found the battle still in action. Within seconds Odin was victorious and killed the last giant standing. Near the edge of the battle a child was found.

„Loki“ Frigga whispered. Idunn smiled. 

A moment later Idunn walked up to Odin and claimed the child as her own. Odin seemed as if he wanted to decline but remembered the power and importance of said woman. 

Smiling Idunn looked at the boy in her arms before stepping with him into the Bifrost. Frigga involuntarly followed her. As they stepped out again they found themselves in Midgard. Frigga looked around finding nothing but various caravans near a small town in the middle of seemingly nowhere. 

 

She watched in horror as Idunn walked up to one of the caravans and left the infant in front of it. A moment later the door opened and a gruff looking man stepped out of it. With disdain he looked at the infant in front of his feet. A moment later the child began crying. The man looked around as if he was looking for the child´s parents before closing the door again leaving the child on its own. 

Frigga was disgusted with what she just witnessed and was about to get the child herself when a young woman walked up to the infant and picked it up. 

 

That was the last she saw of Loki before she was back in her room in Asguard. Furious she looked at Idunn. 

„That was your idea of helping him? Sending him to these barbarians?“

Idunn looked at her, standing her ground. „This way he will learn his place in life! Not the place he thinks he deserves!“ 

Frigga shook her head. „This isn´t what I wanted!“ 

„I am sorry but this is all I could do! But don´t worry, tomorrow you won´t remember a thing!“ She was about to walk out the door when Frigga called her again.

„What about the archer?“ Idunn smiled to herself but didn´t turn around. „I will deal with him in a minute, after all he was the one who was hurt the most by your son but now will be the one who will show Loki another path!“ 

Bowing slightly the goddess left the Allmother on her own. 

For a moment Frigga looked at the door before she walked back to the window and wondered why she felt so sad before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last chapter and I hope everything is resolved! 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading my fic and comenting and leaving kudos, subsribing it and bookmarking it. I hope you enjoyed it! And I thank you for your support, again, because in the end it kept me writing and posting my story. 
> 
> I hope I didn´t disappoint with my ending and explanation of why Loki was brought up by humans. About Idunn she is a norse goddess who was saved by Loki and if you look her up you will know why the apples seem so important. It´s a gift, one could say! 
> 
> And I know I could now write about Asguard and how everyone would know and so on but this story is not really something I have on my mind right now, so yeah maybe I will write, but I don´t think so. The story I have half written is more of a fusion of my own created universe, where Loki grew up on earth and the original where Loki is a villain, and this one I really want to finish and it will be posted someday, hopefully. 
> 
> Anyways, thank you so much for your support and if you are interested check out my other stories or visit me on tumblr (http://ungetuem-aus-der-hoelle.tumblr.com/), which by the way is no hint to spn but to my french bulldog (my profile pic), Anton, who is truly a creature from hell. I would love to hear from you! 
> 
> I don´t think I have anything to say anymore and I know most of you don´t bother reading my, or any notes, so I take my leave and wish you all all the luck in the world!! 
> 
> Lots of love and best wishes from Vienna!!

**Author's Note:**

> Every suggestion on changing something to the better will be taken into account and I will change stuff if necessary, I have no beta nor is english my native language so beware of any grave grammatical errors.  
> Please R&R  
> 


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